Winter Wonderland
by Scorpiofreak
Summary: Alice was nineteen when she became a spirit. She retreated into her Wonderland and never returned. More than a hundred years later, Alice is called back to the real world. She has been picked to be a guardian, but will Alice return and stay in the world that caused her so much pain? Can a certain winter spirit change her stubborn mind? Or will their personalities clash horribly?
1. Chapter 1

**AN: I saw 'Rise of the Guardians' on Saturday and during the middle of it I was like, 'Hey! Alice could totally be a guardian!' Seriously, she could! Her story is well-known (or at least the blonde Alice is), she has a kick ass arsenal, and despite Mcgee's dark undertones Alice would make a great protector of children.**

**So this idea popped in my head and I decided to write it down to see if anything would come from it. Let me know if you like it and if you don't, then don't bother saying anything at all.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Rise of the Guardians or Alice: Madness Returns. If I did, there would be a sequel to the movie and Alice Liddell would definitely be in it as a guardian!**

* * *

The bright silver moon shined down on the enormous workshop built into the side of a large glacier. The outside was so calm and peaceful that it matched with the rest of the beautiful and majestic landscape.

Inside the workshop, however, was another story.

Despite that Christmas was still five months away, North's Workshop, or more widely known as Santa's Workshop, was alive and buzzing with activity. North's faithful yetis worked vigorously on the toys while his elves, clumsy but equally as faithful, ran around delivering tools and refreshments for the yetis. A couple bold elves even tried to help the yetis make toys but the larger, furry creatures either ignored or shooed away the tiny annoyances.

In the center of North's incredible workshop was a giant globe with thousands of small glowing lights on it.

Although it has been almost two years since the guardians defeated Pitch Black, some children refused to believe again after their faith was tested by Pitch's sabotage. The globe wasn't as bright as it was before but it was slowly recovering. As for the guardians, their hearts went out to the children that they let down, but they still looked to the future. The guardians chose to focus on keeping faith alive inside the children that still believed.

Nicholas St. North, Bunnymund, the Toothfairy, and the Sandman have worked almost non-stop these past couple years to pick up the slack that Pitch had created for them. But today, instead of working, the four oldest guardians were gathered around the large fireplace in front of the globe.

Today had a lot of potential to be a very special day.

If only their newest member would actually _show up_. They were expecting a very important announcement from the Man in the Moon, but the mysterious spirit usually only spoke to them if _all_ guardians were present.

"Where 'n the world is that kid?" Bunnymund growled impatiently. The Sandman, who was floating next to the grey pooka, just shrugged his shoulders while a question mark made of dream sand appeared above his head.

"North, are you sure you told Jack the right day?" Tooth asked the big Russian who was standing next to the fireplace with a tiny toy train in his hand.

"Of course I'm sure!" North laughed. "Did you think that I would forget today? Is tradition!"

"Oh, I'm sure Frost knows _exactly_ where he should be right now," Bunnymund said. "I bet he's just takin' his sweet ol' time getting here! He's probably out there somewhere causing an unseasonal snowstorm or bein' a bad influence on children."

"Bunny, calm down," Tooth said, trying to keep the peace. "Jack probably just forgot. I doubt he even knows why today is so important."

"Yeah, why _is_ today so important?"

Everyone jumped at the sudden voice of Jack Frost. They all turned around to see the immortal teenager standing at the top of the stairs near the globe. He pulled his blue hood off his head to show off his trademark white hair while his ever-present staff rested on his shoulder.

"Sorry I'm late. Traffic," the winter spirit joked.

Tooth sighed in relief while Bunnymund grumbled under his breath and Sandy waved. Jack barely had time to wave back and smirk at the grumpy pooka before North bounded up to him.

"I am so glad you made it, Jack!" North said in his usual jolly tone of voice before he threw his arms out in a dramatic fashion. "For today, we get a new guardian!"

"Maybe," Bunnymund said. "We're not completely sure, remember?"

Jack wasn't really paying attention until he heard the part about a new guardian. He tore his icy gaze away from a promising looking jumbo-sized toy airplane.

"Bah!" North scoffed. "Manny will chose a new guardian today. I can feel it in my belly!"

"Whoa, wait! We're getting a new guardian?" Jack asked. Sandy nodded enthusiastically.

"_Maybe_," Bunnymund said again while Tooth flew down to Jack's level.

"Yes, we might be," Tooth said. "You see, Jack, every four hundred years on this day, the Man in the Moon chooses a new guardian, but we're not sure if he will this time since you were only chosen such a short while ago. He's never chosen two guardians in the same decade before."

"Or the same century," Bunnymund mumbled from his spot against a large wooden pillar.

"Who's he going to choose?"

"Well, we don't know," Tooth said. "We didn't know he was going to choose you two years ago. He might choose Patty the Leprechaun or Mother Nature or-"

Tooth stopped talking and looked down at Sandy who tugged gently on her feathers. Above his head were the shapes of a heart-shaped arrow and a jack-o-lantern made of sand.

"Oh yes, Sandy!" Tooth said with excitement. "He might even choose Cupid or little Sammy Hein. Oh, wouldn't that be exciting!"

Jack chuckled as he looked at his friends with a deep hidden fondness. Tooth chatted away happily with Sandy while Bunnymund stood off to the side examining his boomerang. North had lost his interest in the conversation a while ago and was now scolding two fighting elves. Since nobody was paying attention to him, Jack slowly started to make his way over to the toy airplane while he whistled nonchalantly.

"Jack Frost," He heard North say his name. Jack stopped in his tracks and sighed. "Don't even be thinking 'bout it."

"Aww, come on big guy," Jack said with a smile, trying to charm his way out of trouble. "I was just going to look."

"Oh no, you can't be pulling the wool over these big eyes, young man," North chuckled. "Nice try though."

"Would I ever lie to you?" Jack asked while blinking his eyes in false innocence.

"Well..." North began to say, but a happy shout from Tooth grabbed everyone's attention.

"Look!"

Everyone in the entire workshop stopped what they were doing and looked in the direction the Toothfairy was pointing. Moonlight streamed down through the giant skylight of North's Workshop. North shooed and shoved the elves that were standing on the Guardians' symbol that was carved into the floor. The last elf moved just in time as the moonlight landed on the symbol making it glow.

"Crikey," Bunnymund whispered. "He's actually choosing another guardian."

North proudly rubbed his belly. Tooth could barely hold still and Sandy's sand started to glow a little brighter. Jack tightened his grip on his staff and bit his lip. He was feeling a little apprehensive about this whole situation but he tried to keep cool and pretend he knew what was going on.

From the symbol on the floor came a pedestal with a large blue crystal on top. Everyone subconsciously took a step back as the moonlight reflected off the crystal and started to make an image above it. Jack stepped a little closer to see but the image being produced by the crystal confused him.

"Is that a horseshoe?" He asked out loud.

Instead of an image of the entire person, there was only a picture of what looked like an upside down horseshoe.

North crossed his arms and started stroking his beard in thought. Jack saw Tooth whisper something to Sandy but the short Guardian just shrugged his shoulders.

"What is a horseshoe suppose to mean?" Jack asked.

"That's not a horseshoe, mate," Bunnymund said while staring straight at the image. He had a deadpan expression on his face but his forest green eyes burned with an unusual fire that Jack had never seen before. "That's an Omega pendant."

"Bunny are you sure?" Tooth asked, even though she already knew what all this meant.

"Positive," Bunnymund said with a single nod. "And I only know one sheila with a necklace like that."

"But why would Manny chose her?" North murmured, almost to himself.

"Hey, time out!" Jack snapped. He felt way too out of the loop. "Can someone please translate? Who did the Man in the Moon choose to be the new guardian?"

Bunnymund stepped forward next to Jack and crossed his arms. His eyes never once leaving the blue crystal.

"Alice Liddell."

* * *

**AN: So, there's the prologue/first chapter. Let me know what you think! Even though I doubt I'll get much reviews since this _is_ the crossover section. Oh well, hopefully there's _sombody_ out there that also thinks Mcgee's Alice would make a good guardian.**

**If you're a Mcgee's Alice fan who hasn't seen Rise of the Guardians and you were just cruising the crossover section for shits and giggles, I really recommend seeing the movie. It's Dreamworks, they always make amazing movies and ROTG is no exception. And if you're a ROTG fan who hasn't played the American Mcgee's Alice games, I also recommend them. The games are a very interesting and awesome adaptation of Alice in Wonderland.**

**Also, sorry for any errors in the text. If you see one just point it out and I'll fix it.**

**~Scorpiofreak~**


	2. Chapter 2: Who's Alice Liddell?

**AN: Wow! I wasn't expecting so much positive feedback! I thought maybe I would get only one or two reviews. Thanks to all of you for reviewing! I really appreciate it!**

**Heads up. There is a lot of dialogue in this chapter but then again, you all will probably figure out eventually that I use a lot of dialogue.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own ROTG or AMA:MR.**

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"Who's Alice Liddell?"

The four elder guardians ignored Jack's question and looked at each other nervously. Seeing that nobody was going to answer his questions anytime soon, Jack leaned back against a wooden pillar and watched his friends.

"Why would the Man in the Moon choose her," Bunnymund asked. "Doesn't he know _where_ she is and how _long_ she's been there?"

"Have faith Bunny," North said. "Man in Moon must have good reason."

"North's right! The Man in the Moon always has a good reason." Tooth said while constantly fluttering back and forth around the room.

"That's what you said about him," Bunnymund pointed a thumb over his shoulder at Jack. "And look how that turned out."

Jack stuck his tongue out at the pooka's back before grabbing a mug of egg-nog from a passing elf. He chilled the Christmas beverage before taking a drink.

Jack really wanted to be somewhere else now, maybe starting a snowball fight or causing a blizzard. Meetings at the North Pole were usually boring because Old Saint Nick always made Jack actually _participate_ in their discussions rather than let the teen roam around his workshop. That was probably a smart move on the Guardian of Wonder's part. An unsupervised Jack Frost in the famous Santa's Workshop had the potential to be dangerous. Especially for any unsuspecting Yetis and elves.

Usually Jack tried to avoid coming to guardian meetings but in the letter that Jack received from an elf a week earlier, North sounded quite adamant about Jack showing up this time. Knowing what Jack knew now, he wasn't surprised by North's persistent letter. A new Guardian was a pretty big deal for these guys.

But still, Jack really wanted to be somewhere else right now.

"How 'bout we focus more on getting her here?" North suggested. "Last time I hear she was in Wonderland."

_'Wonderland?' _Jack thought.

"That's where Alice has been for the past one hundred and thirty-seven years!" Bunnymund bellowed. "Getting her to leave now won't be a pleasant walk in the park, mate."

"Whoa there fuzzy wuzzy," Jack said with a smirk on his face. "Alice? As in _'Alice in Wonderland_,' Alice? I didn't know she was real."

Tooth hovered down next to Jack.

"I'm not surprised, Jack. Like Bunny said, Alice hasn't left her Wonderland in over a hundred years."

"So... Wonderland is an actual place?"

"It wasn't at first," Bunnymund said, cutting back into the conversation. "When Alice was human, Wonderland was just a place in her imagination but once Manny made her a spirit, he recreated Wonderland inside a blank dimension. In that dimension, Alice is free to create whatever she wants. But unlike when she was human, her creations are real."

Jack was almost completely lost at this point but the other Guardians were now talking more among themselves than at him. He sighed again in frustration and went to go stand next to Sandy who had fallen asleep.

"Now that I have given thought to idea, I am no longer surprised Manny chose Alice," North nodded. "She is very powerful girl."

"That's right," Tooth said. "Even though she might not realize it."

"I know children hold a lot more power than we originally thought..." Jack said loudly to get everyone's attention. "But why would the moon choose a little girl to be a _Guardian?_"

North, Bunnymund, and Tooth stared at the immortal teen for a few moments before the men of the group burst out laughing. Both Jack and Tooth looked at them with unimpressed looks.

"Oh hush, you two," Tooth scolded before turning back to the winter spirit. "Jack, you should know by now that the traditional fairy tales or myths don't always portray the real person correctly."

"Alice is young but she certainly ain't the little ankle-biter her books make her out to be," Bunnymund laughed. "That's the author, Lewis Carroll's doin'."

"Now, this has been all nice and dandy but," North said seriously. "We need a plan to get Alice to the North Pole!"

"Why not use a sac and a magic portal like you did with me?" Jack suggested.

"Because we actually _like_ Alice," Bunnymund smirked.

"Oh ouch," Jack said sarcastically. "That really hurt kangaroo."

Bunnymund opened his mouth to reply back with something witty but Tooth flew in between the two bickering guardians.

"Enough boys," She said sternly. "We're all friends here and no one is getting thrown into a sac again."

"Tooth is right," North chuckled. "And besides, no one can force Alice out of Wonderland. She has to leave willingly."

"Like I said before, getting Alice to come back to this world won't be easy," Bunnymund said while crossing his arms. "She's even more stubborn than Frost!"

"Hey!"

"That is excellent point, Bunny," North said with a smirk. "Which is why we are sending YOU to retrieve Alice."

Bunnymund jumped slightly and his eyes widened with surprise. Jack laughed and pointed a finger at the stunned rabbit. It was funny for Jack to see the oversized rabbit given the short end of the stick. Although, he wouldn't mind seeing this Wonderland since he's heard so much about it already.

Jamie's mom reads _'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'_ to Sophie every night. The little girl absolutely loved the book and was obsessed with the old animated Disney movie. Sometimes Jack would stick around Jamie's house on their family movie night. Everytime it was Sophie's turn to pick a movie, she always picked Wonderland. So Jack was rather familiar with the story books. Which is why it was hard for him to picture Alice as anything but a curious little girl.

The copy of _'Alice's Ad__ventures in Wonderland'_ in Jamie's home was really worn down. Jamie said that his grandmother use to read it to his mom when she was a little girl; the old book was almost a family heirloom. Jack never knew a book could have such sentimental value. He remembered seeing the cover. On the front of the book was a large oak tree with a fat cat laying on one of its branches. The cat was smiling down at a small girl with blonde curls and a black ribbon tied into a bow on the top of her head. She wore a cute blue dress with a white apron, white stockings, and shiny black dress shoes.

The stories were silly, colorful, and fun which is why children loved them so much. Jack couldn't help but think that if the book had existed when he was alive, his little sister would have loved it.

Jack was saved from thinking too deeply into his past life by Bunnymund's voice.

"Me!" Bunnymund shouted. "Why do I have to go?"

"Because, you've known her since she was a little girl," Tooth pointed out. "And you also still visit her, don't you?"

"Maybe once or twice a year," Bunnymund mumbled. "But-"

"Stop being so difficult, Bunny," North laughed.

The Sandman, who recently woke up from his nap, made a small cat out of sand and smiled deviously at the rabbit. North looked down at Sandy and laughed.

"Or is Sandy right?" North asked. "Are you still afraid of the Cheshire Cat?"

"No!" Bunnymund snapped.

"Bunny is afraid of the Cheshire Cat?" Jack laughed. "No way! That's hilarious!"

Bunnymund was practically grinding his teeth in anger at Jack. The Pooka did not like being teased. It also didn't help that North and Sandy were laughing too.

Jack was laughing so hard he was holding his sides. The thought of big, bad Bunnymund being afraid of a comically fat cat with a stupid grin was just too much to handle. Even Tooth giggled behind her hand at Bunny's frustration.

"Have any of you blokes ever seen the _real_ Cheshire Cat?" Bunny growled. "It's bloody freaky looking!"

"Calm down, Bunny," North chuckled. "We are just teasing."

Bunnymund grumbled under his breath. The room went under a brief silence while Bunnymund thought over his options. This gave time for Jack to wonder about a couple of things. Firstly, why was Bunnymund creeped out by a cat? Maybe it was just a rabbit thing. Secondly, if Bunnymund already knew Alice, why is he so reluctant to go get her? Apparently, he's been to Wonderland several times before.

"Alright," Bunnymund sighed. "I'll go talk to Alice. I'll try my best to convince her to come to the Pole, but I can't promise anything. And if by some unlikely chance she does come, Alice won't go anywhere in the outside world without me."

"Yes, yes of course, Bunny," North said. "I am aware of how much Alice's safety means to you."

Confusion and interest sparked Jack's attention.

_'This could be interesting,'_ The winter spirit thought.

Bunnymund reached behind himself and pulled something out of the holder where his boomerangs were. It was a tiny leather pouch. He opened the top and titled the sac over his open paw. A pearl sized blue and pink marble fell out. Jack watched with acute interest as Bunnymund tapped the ground twice with his big rabbit foot, summoning one of his tunnels, and tossed the marble into it. For a moment nothing happened and before Jack could make a witty comment, a bright blue light shined from the hole. The tunnel was turn into some kind of portal.

"I'll be back as soon as I can," Bunnymund said with a nod towards the other Guardians.

Without another word, the Easter Bunny jumped into the portal and the ground closed up behind him. No one but Jack seemed to be affected by the change in Bunny's tunnel; mainly because the meeting had unofficially been dismissed. Jack sat on a nearby workshop table and looked around at the other guardians.

Sandy had disappeared to spread his dream sand over some part of the world that was now experiencing the night hours. Tooth was off somewhere frantically talking to her little fairies about different children with teeth under their pillows. North was chastising a yeti for painting a stack of robots red and ordered the poor creature to repaint all of them green. The yeti shouted out in disbelief before banging his head on the table in frustration. North chuckled before making his way past Jack.

"Hey," Jack said, getting the large man's attention. "What was with the bag of marbles that Bunny had?"

"Oh, Jack. Everybody knows the only proper way to get to Wonderland is through a rabbit hole!" North laughed again before patting Jack's shoulder like all of this was common knowledge.

"Oh right, silly me," Jack said as North walked off towards his office. "That didn't exactly answer my question but whatever."

Not even thirty seconds after North left, Jack realized that he was alone and that none of the yetis were paying him any attention. Jack stood up and brushed of his blue hoodie before picking up his staff.

"I wonder where that toy plane got to."

* * *

Bunnymund hated traveling to Wonderland through his tunnels.

The bag of marbles Alice had given to him opened into a portal when one was smashed against the ground. The trip through the infamous Wonderland rabbit hole wasn't a very pleasant one in Bunnymund's opinion, but he was use to it by now.

When going through the portal, one would find themself falling down through a sea of blurry colors. Then, as you neared the end, you would pass by clocks, books, furniture, and giant-sized toys. Finally, you would be hit by a blinding light. When the light cleared, you would find yourself approaching the ground below at a less dangerous pace. Granted, you would still be falling but once you hit the ground, depending how you landed, you might only get a bruise or two.

Bunnymund had traveled to Wonderland so many times before, he could now easily manuever himself in the air and land on his feet. However, his first trip to Wonderland was a different story. He nearly broke his ankle the first time.

Bunnymund landed on a patch of green grass in the area he came to recognize as the Vale of Tears. The Vale was probably one of Alice's favorite places in Wonderland. The forest was littered with over-sized dominos, marbles, and the occasional giant snowglobe. Animals of mixed species went along with their usual business, not paying Bunnymund any piece of mind. The only things that seemed to acknowledge him were the colossal snails with large oak trees growing on their shells. They looked down at the Easter Bunny with their long beady eyes as he made his way through the Vale.

The gray pooka sniffed the air, trying to pick up Alice's scent. He sighed indignantly when he came up with nothing. There were so many different areas of Wonderland where Alice could be but Bunnymund didn't have the will, or the time, to check them all. His best option would be to find someone, or something, that could tell him where to find the girl.

Problem was, nobody in Wonderland was exactly what you would called sane.

Bunnymund searched through the Vale for anyone who could help him. Eventually, he came to a fork in the path he was walking on. He sniffed the air again before wincing. The left side of the fork had a strong scent of pepper coming from it. Bunnymund groaned at the thought of encountering the plump and ugly Duchess. The ogre once tried to make bunny soup out of him a couple of decades ago. He was able to escape by throwing an exploding powder Easter egg in her face.

You couldn't pay Bunnymund enough to go anywhere near the Duchess' deadly kitchen again.

He shuddered at the memory before making his way down the right side of the fork at a fast pace. He came to a skidding halt when he spotted a lemur with bright colorful parrot wings instead of arms.

"Uh, excuse me," Bunnymund called up the tree where the lemur-parrot sat on a branch. The lemur perked up at Bunnymund's voice and looked down at him.

"What'd ya want?" the creature asked in a Brooklyn accent.

Bunnymund was surprised at the lemur's voice. Usually the beings living in Wonderland had English accents like Alice. There was even a section of Wonderland made up of an origami ant population that spoke with Japanese accents. Never has Bunnymund heard someone in Wonderland speak with an accent even remotely close to an American one. Regardless, he pushed away the thought.

"I'm lookin' for Alice," Bunnymund said. "Have you seen her?"

"Hmm, Alice eh?" The lemur mused before hanging upside down by his tail. "Pretty lil' thing with black hair, right?"

Bunnymund nodded.

"Blue dress? Black boots?"

Bunnymund scowled impatiently but nodded again.

"Green eyes? Small waist? Nice rac-"

"Hey! Have you seen Alice or not?" Bunnymund snapped. Not only did he not have the time to play twenty questions, but nobody talked about Alice like that in front of the Easter Bunny! Well, unless you _wanted_ your teeth kicked in or something.

The lemur yowled in fright when Bunnymund reached for his boomerangs behind his back. He held up his wings in surrender.

"Geez! Calm down man!" The lemur yelped. "Sorry! It's just...outsiders never come 'round here. I was only funnin' with ya. Alice is down by the first stop of the Lookin' Glass Line. It's not far from here, just keep followin' the path."

Bunnymund didn't even bother to thank the annoying pest before taking his leave. He started to run down the path until he eventually hit a small cliff that overlooked a broken down train stop. Bunnymund hopped off the cliff and landed on the ground below. His green eyes surveyed the deserted area.

Unlike the rest of the Vale of Tears, the railroad stop was bare of any plant life. The train tracks were broken apart and the edges of them hung over a bottomless drop into a cloudy unknown. Large parts of the dirt ground were scorched black; ugly scars from the black ooze that once plagued Wonderland over a hundred years ago. Fortunately, Alice had almost all the nasty stuff cleared away from Wonderland.

Alice once told Bunnymund that the black ooze had been part of the Dollmaker Siege, and that even after all these years, Alice was _still_ cleaning up the mess.

She didn't usually talk about that period of time because Alice was still human at that point. Bunnymund didn't know much about the siege but he did know that it took a serious mental toll on the girl.

Alice's time as a human was rarely brought up.

Bunnymund met Alice when she was just five years old. He had come across her while he was hiding eggs for Easter(1). She was crying. Bunnymund hated to see girls cry, especially the little ones. So he hopped over to her and placed three brightly colored eggs next to her. He didn't expect her to be able to see him considering that the Easter Bunny wasn't very well-known at the time, but to his surprise, Alice looked up at him with tear filled green eyes.

He asked her why she was crying on such a bright sunny day. Bunnymund didn't remember what she had told him but he did remember how he cheered her up. He asked her if she wanted to help him hide his Easter eggs. He would never forget the way Alice's eyes lit up and how big her smile grew.

For the next three years, Bunnymund enlisted Alice's help to hide Easter eggs around her neighborhood and nearby park. He never took her too far from home but Alice didn't seem to mind. She loved it when the six-foot rabbit came to visit her.

Then when Alice was eight...the fire happened. After that night Bunnymund couldn't find Alice. He looked and looked and looked but...

He didn't see her again until fifty years _after_ Alice was made into a spirit. He remembered their reunion just as clearly as he remembered their first meeting.

Bunnymund quickly shook away the memories. He needed to focus on the task at hand. The others were waiting back at the Pole.

He sighed in frustration when it became obvious that the winged primate had pointed him in the wrong direction. He briefly considered going back and giving that feather-brained monkey a piece of his mind for wasting his time but decided against it. The annoying lemur was probably long gone by now.

Bunnymund had covered a mass majority of the Vale at this point so he decided he should move on to another section of Wonderland.

_'Maybe I should check the Red Kingdom,'_ Bunnymund thought. _'Alice seems to-'_

The Easter Bunny almost jumped at the sudden sound of a soft accented voice.

"Mr. Bunnymund?"

* * *

**AN: Gah! Semi-cliffhanger! I've been called the Queen of Cliffhangers many times before!...Just kidding, no I haven't. Sorry for the slow update but I've been pretty busy with school. Anyways, next chapter will focus mostly on what Alice has been up to for the past one hundred and thirty-seven years and Bunnymund trying to convince Alice to leave Wonderland. Alice might meet Jack the next chapter but I'm not sure yet. It depends how things turn out while I'm typing. If not, they'll definitely meet the next, next chapter.**

**(1) I do know that Easter is celebrated in Britain but I'm not sure if it was celebrated in 1862 (the year Alice was five if my math is correct) or not. If it wasn't, just work with me here and pretend it was!**

**Also, sorry for any mistakes or errors in the text! If you find any let me know and I'll fix them.**

**And thanks again for all the fabulous reviews! I really appreciate them! I hope you guys liked this chapter!**

**~Scorpiofreak~**


	3. Chapter 3: Wonderland Aftermath

**AN: Yeah! We survived the end of the world! High fives all around! **

**Thank you, thank you, thank you! Thank you all for your generous reviews!**

**Sorry if this update came a little slow; I had a stupid english essay to work on. On a lighter note, I just started my winter break on Friday so school shouldn't be much of a problem the next two weeks.**

**By the by, this chapter introduces Alice and it is mainly centered around the aftermath of the second Alice game. Ugh, I know, boring but I had to do it.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own ROTG or A:MR.**

* * *

Alice Liddell was nineteen when people stopped seeing her.

Even after all these years Alice can still recall the day of her 'disappearance' with stunning clarity.

It was the day she confronted her family's killer at Moorgate Train Station in London, England. Alice exposed Dr. Angus Bumby for the monster he truly was and then...she made sure he paid for what he had done. Not just for her and her family's pain, but for the pain of all those innocent children whose childhoods were ruined by that wicked beast's selfish intentions.

The police ruled Dr. Bumby, 'dead by misadventure.' The irony almost made Alice laugh.

Unfortunately, the truth about the fire and Dr. Bumby's illegal activities disappeared along with Alice, and she was immediately labeled as a runaway. There was a small search for her since Alice was still considered an 'unstable' mental patient but it didn't last long. Everybody probably assumed she either left the city, or was rotting in a gutter somewhere speaking nonsense. Only Alice's nanny kept looking but after awhile, even she gave up hope too.

The Houndsditch Home for Wayward Youth was closed down soon after Dr. Bumby's death and the children were sent, hopefully, to another orphanage where they could get some _real_ help and continue their lives in peace. The truth may still be buried under countless lies but at least Angus Bumby will never be able to harm another child again.

As for Alice, she slowly started to become a local legend around London. Bits of gossip about a psychotic teenage girl, who saw and heard things that weren't really there, somehow turned into fairy tales. Stories of a curious little girl who fell into a rabbit hole and landed in very wonderous place were told to the children. Then one day, many years after Alice disappeared, an author by the name of Lewis Carroll overheard a story about one of little Alice's adventures and he was inspired to write more. In his story, Alice Liddell was a little girl with blonde hair who had a talent for getting into trouble. (1)

Once the books became published and with the years that started to pass, everyone eventually forgot about the real Alice Liddell; the small brunette haired girl with an overactive imagination and the tragedy she went through when she was just eight years old. No one wanted to read a story about a girl who lost her family in a horrible fire and went insane because of it.

The moment she had turned back to face Dr. Bumby for the last time, suddenly wearing her Wonderland dress, Alice became invisible to the real world. (2)

She tried to get people to see her, but no one ever did. She sat back and watched as her story was changed into something loved by many children. Through it all, Alice believed it was better this way. Her story brought joy and entertainment to children.

Her Wonderland became good again. Just like it was before the fire destroyed everything.

After about fifty years of being unseen, Alice descended back into her Wonderland and never returned to the real world.

Now, here she stood, facing the only connection she had to, what she liked to call, the 'Outside' world.

"Mr. Bunnymund?" Alice said in slight disbelief. She wasn't expecting a visit from the Easter Bunny so soon. He usually came later in the year. Well, later in an Outside World year. Time didn't affect Wonderland like it did in the Outside World.

The six-foot gray pooka turned around in surprise. Alice stood about ten feet away in her classic blue Wonderland dress. She didn't have any of her weapons in her hands but Bunnymund knew that they had a habit of materializing out of nowhere when Alice needed them. She could never use them on him though.

He was the only friend that Alice had that wasn't created from her wild imagination, and that was one of the many reasons why Bunnymund meant the most to her.

"What are you doing here?" Alice asked. "A spontaneous visit like this isn't like you."

"Do I need a reason to visit my favorite ankle-biter?" Bunnymund asked while crossing his arms. "You don't sound very excited to see me."

Bunnymund tried to look insulted but they both knew he was only joking. The only time when Bunnymund ever truly becomes cross with Alice is when the girl purposely puts herself in harm's way. During those situations, Bunnymund acted more like a furious older sibling than a disappointed friend.

"You know I am always happy to see you," Alice smiled. "But this isn't just a social call, is it?"

"I wish it were but I have some news for you," Bunnymund sighed.

"Is it bad?"

"Oh no! Of course not," Bunnymund insisted. "It's just...can we go somewhere else and talk? This place is kinda depressin' me."

Alice's sharp green eyes scanned the scorched and stained area around them. Her pink lips pursed in thought before she nodded her head in agreement. Alice's heart clenched in guilt and sadness due to the state her beloved train station was in. She felt terrible for not restoring the Looking Glass Line but because of that Infernal Train, Alice still wasn't entirely comfortable around trains, even after a hundred and thirty-seven years. And to be honest, Alice never really liked trains to begin with.

_'Perhaps the Looking Glass Line will be my next clean-up project. It'll certainly be a challenge,'_ Alice thought. _'Father loved trains ...'_

"I completely agree," Alice said, this time to Bunnymund. "Let's go."

* * *

When Alice had returned to the Red Kingdom soon after defeating the Dollmaker, she found it empty. Supposedly after the Dollmaker's demise, the Red Queen fled from her kingdom and went into hiding.

Although, Alice had her suspicions that the queen fled mainly because Alice had stomped on her 'almighty' executioner. The queen must have believed that she was at risk now that her wicked giant wasn't guarding the Red Kingdom anymore.

Regardless of the queen's motives, Alice decided to inhabit the empty kingdom and make it her own.

All the red tentacles disappeared along with the Red Queen, but the kingdom was still in ruin. Insidious ruins and black sludge still lurked around the land when Alice moved in but she quickly had them disposed of. The kingdom buildings themselves still had their scars but as a whole, the kingdom was now a much more pleasant place to live and it quickly became Alice's home and headquarters in Wonderland.

The past one hundred and thirty-seven years were mainly spent just destroying and clearing away the black ooze pollution. Reconstruction of the different sections of Wonderland didn't come until later. Places like the Hatter's Domain and the Dreary Lane Theatre were taken care of personally by their owners. The Origami Ants were doing a good job of taking care of their land with only a little help from Alice, and occasionally Caterpillar. The ants insisted on learning the ways of self-reliance. Alice didn't even try to argue. In fact, she was quite proud of them.

Alice and Bunnymund walked down a long hallway that led out into the old garden labyrinth. Alice's blue wonderland dress had changed into her black and red royal dress the moment they stepped off the Card Bridge. (3)

Bunnymund looked around at the recent improvements that Alice had made to the Red Kingdom. The kingdom looked more like a real castle, instead of a twisted and hellish version of one.

"Are these new?" Bunnymund asked, referring to the mosaic windows with playing card decorations on them. They lined along the hallway and gave the red carpeted floor a beautiful glow.

Alice turned to look back at Bunnymund but she didn't stop walking. She was a little apprehensive about Bunnymund's sudden visit. Normally Alice was delighted to show off her kingdom's recent handiwork to her oldest (if not her _only)_ friend but she had an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach. At the moment, Alice just wanted to reach her beautiful garden; not chat about the windows that Bunnymund failed to notice during his last visit.

"New enough," Alice said. "The garden is just up ahead."

Twenty minutes later, the two friends were deep within the garden's labyrinth. The tall wall hedges were green and covered in red _and_ white roses. Alice didn't really care what color the flowers were. The garden was certainly better looking than it was before, when every plant was either dead or on the verge of dying.

Bunnymund smirked at the sight of a couple of undead card guards watering a patch of oversized daisies. The gruesome creatures looked almost ridiculous, but at least they weren't trying to attack. They stood there growling in their own language and occasionally shoved each other. Alice went on to explain how, just a short time ago, she came across a large amount of left over card guards deep within the ruins of the Red Kingdom. When they weren't under the heavy rule of the Red Queen, the stoney creatures were actually quite passive. They helped Alice run the kingdom. They were the same to Alice as the yetis were to North.

"So, what is this news that you are choosing to be so cryptic about?" Alice asked while holding her arms behind her back.

Bunnymund took a deep breath. The pooka was trying think of a good way to tell Alice about what had happened at the North Pole. If he didn't handle the situation carefully enough, Alice would never agree to come back. Alice was never usually that difficult to deal with. She only went on the defensive when he tried to talk about the Outside World. Bunnymund couldn't blame her. Her old world didn't exactly make it easy for her, even though she was just a child at the time.

In the end, Bunnymund decided to go with a semi-direct approach.

"The Man in the Moon chose a new guardian," Bunnymund said, slightly testing the waters.

"Yes, you told me already," Alice smiled. "That boy who messes with your easter egg hunts every year. What was his name again?"

Alice stopped next to a large rose-bush and started picking dead leaves from it. Bunnymund's nose and ears twitched in annoyance at the thought of the white-haired troublemaker.

"Jack Frost," Bunnymund said with not as much distaste as he would have used two years ago. "But that was a couple of years ago. I meant that the Man in the Moon chose a new guardian just recently... and when I say recently, I mean he chose one...today."

Alice halted her movements and slowly shifted her eyes towards Bunnymund. A dead brown rose stem was held in between her gloved fingers.

"And you rushed to Wonderland so quickly to tell me this why?" Alice said in almost a whisper. She knew where this conversation was headed, but Alice wasn't completely sure she wanted to hear anymore of what Bunnymund had to say.

"Because...the Man in the Moon chose you, kiddo," Bunnymund sighed. "He wants _you_ to be the new guardian."

"So, you've come here to bring me back?" Alice asked in a sharp but calm tone. "Is that your intention?"

Alice was clenching her fist so tightly that the thorns of the dead rose stem were biting painfully into her palm. She didn't want to be angry at her friend, but Bunnymund knew better than to say such things to her. Alice has always dreaded that one day, something would happen where she would be forced to leave her Wonderland and go back to the Outside World.

And Alice had the distinct feeling that today was that day.

"Now Alice, calm down," Bunnymund said while gesturing with his paws. She didn't look upset, but you didn't exactly have to know Alice very long to figure out that she could change moods faster than he could hop, which was pretty fast.

"It is, isn't it!" Alice snapped. "Well, I'm not leaving! So you can go tell your Man in the Moon to pick someone else to do his work!"

"Alice, it doesn't work like that," Bunnymund said. "And he's not just _my_ Man in the Moon. He's responsible for all our existences: me, North, Tooth, Sandy, Jack, and you too."

Alice was barely listening to Bunnymund at that point. That stupid rhyme started playing inside her head again. That stupid rhyme that the children at the orphanage would recite constantly!

_~ The train is coming with its shiny cars._ _With comfy seats and wheels of stars._ _So hush my little ones, have no fear. The Man in the Moon is the engineer.~_

Alice tried to push away the painful memories by remembering how she had the Dollmaker's Workshop torn down soon after she had returned to Wonderland. Whenever Bunnymund brought up the Man in the Moon, Alice's mind immediately thought of the Dollmaker; not of the kind and powerful entity that watched over the guardians.

"Alice, please come back with me," Bunnymund asked. "At least come meet North and the other guardians."

"No! Absolutely not! I refuse to return to that wicked world!"

Bunnymund stepped forward to comfort Alice but he stopped when he felt several pairs of eyes on him. He glanced around to see the card guards somehow glaring at him through empty eye sockets. The cards guards weren't very smart, but they could _clearly_ see that this _outsider_ was upsetting their kind new queen.

Bunnymund shifted uneasily while his paw slowly reached for his boomerang, just in case the creatures decided to charge him. Alice noticed the sudden rising tension and took a deep breath to calm herself down. She raised her hands at her guards and gestured for them to calm down also. At Alice's signal, the card guards growled among themselves but eventually went back to tending the maze garden.

"Bunny," Alice sighed, dropping the formalities. "There must be some mistake. The Guardians protect and bring joy to children. I don't bring joy and I'm most certainly not anybody's protector."

"What do ya mean you don't bring joy to children," Bunnymund laughed. "What about your books?"

"Their not _my_ books. At least, not entirely," Alice said. "And besides, that's all they are, _books_."

"Alice, the Man in the Moon doesn't just randomly pick someone to be a Guardian," Bunnymund said. "Each guardian has somethin' special inside of them; something that makes them a Guardian. And I can see why the Man in the Moon chose you."

Alice looked down at her boot covered feet in thought before slowly walking towards a nearby gazebo. She crossed her arms and leaned against the railing of the small structure. Bunnymund came up behind her.

"If you're so willingly to place so much faith in me..." Alice said while staring off at something Bunnymund couldn't see. "Then what make me so special?"

Bunnymund barely held back a surprised bark of laughter. It amazed him every time that Alice couldn't see just how wonderful she truly was.

"Are ya kiddin' me? Look around you, sheila!" Bunnymund spread his arms out wide. "Look at all this! You created it all with pure imagination and _you_ ask _me_ what makes you special?"

Alice didn't respond but Bunnymund could tell that his words were starting to work. He chuckled and shook his head. Alice was sweet but she could be the most stubborn girl you've ever met. She might be one hundred and fifty-six years old, but she could throw child-sized tantrums sometimes. At that thought, Bunnymund's mind started to drift towards a certain winter spirit.

Bunnymund's internal clock started to tell him that it was getting late at the North Pole. He decided to throw caution to the wind and hope it didn't blow up in his furry face.

"Look," He started. "Come with me to the Pole and meet the other guardians. We'll just be goin' to the North Pole and I'll be with you every step of the way. If you don't like it, then...then I'll bring you back here. I promise."

"I thought I couldn't say "no" to being a guardian," Alice smiled softly.

"Well, that's not entirely true," Bunnymund laughed while scratching the back of his head. "No one can force you to take the Guardian Oath... but it would certainly make all our lives much easier if we could."

"And what if something bad happens while we're up there?"

Bunnymund placed both paws on Alice's shoulders and turned her towards him so he could look her in the eyes.

"I will _never_ let anything bad happen to you," He swore. "Not _ever_ again."

Alice's green eyes softened and her hand came up to pet the pooka's muzzle. Memories of those happy Easter Sundays when she was still an innocent child flooded her mind. Naturally, the bad memories followed quickly behind. They always did.

"The fire happened during winter, nowhere near Easter. You couldn't have realized what was happening and come to our aid quick enough for it to have mattered," Alice whispered. "It wasn't your fault."

"It wasn't your's either."

Before any tears could escape her eyes, Alice wrapped her arms around Bunnymund's chest and buried her face in his soft gray and white fur. Bunnymund smiled and returned the hug. Even before becoming a spirit, Alice rarely displayed such acts of affection, but the Easter Bunny was special.

"So, what do ya say, kiddo?" Bunnymund asked. "Are you ready to meet the craziest bunch of wallabies ever?"

* * *

**AN: Gasp! Cliffhanger! Just kidding. If you had any common sense, you can probably figure out Alice's answer. Otherwise, this would be a very short story.**

**(1) Okay, I'm not looking to pick a fight with any die-hard Lewis Carroll fans out there but I wanted to try to incorporate the existence of little blonde Alice into this story and this is the best way I can come up with. I didn't mean to make it seem like Carroll couldn't come up with Alice in Wonderland by himself.**

**(2) I always liked the idea of the scene at the train station (right before Alice pushes Bumby) being the moment where Alice is turned into a spirit by the Man in the Moon. You know, where she turns around and she's suddenly in her blue dress. And Bumby has that amazed expression on his sick mug.**

**(3) Although I would love to design and describe a bunch of new dresses for Alice, her dresses have very intricate designs and it would take me pages to describe in words what any new dresses would look like. When she's in the different sections of Wonderland, I'll give her the pre-existing dress that matches each section. And maybe even some from the DLC pack, who knows? But for the most part, she'll be wearing her classic Wonderland dress in the real world. Her London dress might even make an appearance later on.**

**And just in case you guys were wondering, I have no intention of making a BunnyXAlice pairing! Their relationship is purely brother/sister and sometimes even father/daughter. Personally, I'm a fan of the BunnyXTooth pairing.**

**Oh! And one of my lovely reviewers made me a work of art based off Winter Wonderland on . The piece is done by SunsetinVenezia and the link is up on my profile! It's really cute! Check it out!**

**~Scorpiofreak~**


	4. Chapter 4: Welcome to the Pole

**AN: Ugh, you guys would not believe the bad luck I've had these past few weeks! I caught the flu which really sucked! THEN, all of last week I had exam finals at school so I had to study a butt load of information for my eight classes.**

**There is some good news though! I got a new laptop! I was so excited when I got home from the store. I started it up, adjusted the settings to my liking, put up my Joker wallpaper (I love Heath Ledger's Joker to death), and got to work on chapter four of this story. This chapter is pretty wordy and kind of uneventful but next chapter will be great!**

**Sorry for the wait, guys! **

**Disclaimer: I don't own ROTG or A:MR**

* * *

"Hey, Tooth?"

The Tooth Fairy stopped her frantic chattering with her mini-fairies at the sound of the winter spirit's voice. She looked over at Jack from her perch on the fireplace mantle. He was sitting on a wooden railing of North's Workshop with Baby Tooth and his trademark staff nearby. In his pale hands was the remote controller for the jumbo-sized airplane. Strands of his white hair hung loosely in his face as he examined the controller, trying to figure out the controls.

"Yes, Jack?"

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Of course," Tooth smiled. She flew over to him, her wings making that hummingbird noise. "What is on your mind?"

"What's with Bunny and Alice Little?" He asked.

"Li_ddell_," Tooth corrected. "Well, where should I start?"

"The beginning is always a good place," Jack said while finally taking his eyes off the remote controller.

"Don't get smart with me, Jack Frost," Tooth lightly scolded. She crossed her feathered arms in a slight huff but there was an obvious smile in her voice. "As I'm sure you know, as Guardians, we protect the children of the world and guard their faith. We watch over every single child no matter who they are or where they come from. We try to care for all the children equally, but there's always that one special child that comes along and a Guardian sometimes ends up forming a strong, personal bond with that child."

"Kinda like me and Jamie?"

"_Exactly_ like you and Jamie," Tooth nodded. "Each one of us has, at one time or another, formed a special bond with a child, and for Bunnymund, Alice was his child. Well, not in the literal sense of course."

Jack's eyebrows raised in slight shock and interest. It was hard for Jack to imagine _Bunnymund_ having a relationship with a child similar to the one he had with Jamie. Jack cared for all the children in the world but he knew that Jamie will leave an everlasting impression on him. Jamie was the first kid to believe in him after all. After the incident with Pitch Black, Jack quickly found himself falling into the role of big brother again. Jack spent a lot of his time, during the colder seasons, playing and showing off his powers to Jamie and his friends. He also became the protector of his little band of misfits.

Whenever Jamie had a math test he forgot to study for, Jack would freeze the school doors shut so Jamie could have a little extra time before class to cram information. Whenever a bully decided to torment Jamie or any of his friends, Jack was there, ready to bury the bully in a pile of snow slush from the roads.

Jack wasn't allowed to hurt a child, not that he ever would, but he couldn't see the harm in teaching a few nasty ones some manners. If anything, he was doing North a favor by "helping" a couple of naughty children be a little nicer to their smaller classmates.

So again, it was hard for Jack to imagine, ol' stick-in-the-mud, Bunnymund acting the same way Jack did with Jamie; like an older brother. This thought brought up several other ones that Jack wasn't too keen on thinking so deeply about. Thoughts and theories about Bunnymund's secretive past with this Alice girl, and even thoughts about his own past.

It's not that Jack regretted getting his memories back, he just always thought that if he remembered the time he spent as a human, then he would finally understand what his purpose was as a spirit. But now, instead of questions about what happened _before_ he died, he now had questions about what happened _after_ he died. Questions like, what happened to his little sister after she saw him fall through the ice?

Jack pushed the lingering thoughts about his past to the back of his mind. He preferred to think about that particular subject on his own time. He didn't want his friends catching wind of his small internal battle. The other Guardians had a habit of being a little overprotective of their youngest teammate. It's not that he didn't appreciate their help or concern; Jack just never liked being fussed over, even when he was human.

Jack looked over at Tooth and decided to change the subject just a bit.

"Do you remember your child?" Jack asked. He figured that now would be a prefect time to try to learn more about the Tooth Fairy. She loved talking about the children.

"Oh, of course! You never forget children like that," Tooth smiled with a gleam in her lavender eyes. "I remember little Jenny Moore like it was yesterday."

Jack put down the electronic airplane remote and shifted on the workshop railing. A handful of Tooth's mini-fairies flew down and landed on Jack's hoodie. They sensed a story coming on. Jack chuckled at the small fairies as they rushed to get comfortable while trying to stay on Jack. Tooth rolled her eyes and smiled before she took a seat next to Jack on the railing.

"It was a little over four hundred years ago, before I became a Guardian." (1)

"I didn't have as many fairies then so I was out in the field more often, not that it bothered me of course! It was a typical lateral incisor run. I pushed open the window and snuck in as quietly as possible. Her red curly hair was all over the place and she was tucked under a colorful quilt, sleeping so peacefully. Well, at least I _thought_ she was sleeping. When I went to get her tooth from under the pillow, she popped up like a daisy and gave me the most triumphant smile I have ever seen on a six-year-old! She immediately started asking me a million questions, talking a mile a minute."

Jack watched as Tooth got lost in her memories. He always saw the Guardians in a different light when they talked about the children. It was like watching someone flip on a light switch. They would turn from these super busy working stiffs, and into spirits that were actually fun to be around. His friends were once so busy with their gift giving duties that they almost forgot how to be around children! When Sophie was accidentally transported to Bunny's warren, they had no idea how to handle her at first! Tooth gave a valiant and noble effort, but she probably ended up scarring Sophie for life.

In his opinion, Jack thought it was much more important to be able to play and interact with the children, instead of bribing them with material gifts.

But that was just his opinion.

Jack Frost didn't need toys or candy to help him make things entertaining for their young wards. He was the Guardian of Fun after all.

Then again, children believed in the other Guardians more than they did in him. To Jack's knowledge, only Jamie and a handful of his friends truly believed in him. And even though he was _extremely_ grateful for those few believers, it still depressed him from time to time. However, the feeling never lasted that long. Dwelling on the negatives of his situation, constantly, just wasn't a part of Jack's personality.

He also took comfort in the fact that it was like that for every Guardian at first. It took a little time for a spirit to become well-known; sometimes longer for others, like himself. _'Rome was not built in a single day!'_ North once told him. _'Do not worry Jack. Things will be getting better for you. I can feel it, in my belly!'_

"Even after all these years I still remember her beautiful smile," Tooth said, finishing her story. The mini-fairies all started to clap. Jack chuckled before he joined in too. He felt bad for letting his mind wander a little during her story. He didn't do it on purpose, his attention span was just really short for an eighteen year old. (2)

"So, what happened to Jenny?" Jack asked after the small fairies calmed down. "Did you know her for the rest of her life?"

"Sadly no," Tooth sighed. "The last time I talked to Jenny was when she was thirteen."

"Really? What happened?"

"The same thing that happens to all children eventually," Tooth said while giving a small but sad smile. "She grew up."

"...she stopped believing in you."

Tooth nodded and looked down at her feather covered feet. "I guess someone must've convinced her that I was just imaginary, or maybe she convinced herself."

"I'm sorry Tooth."

"Oh, it's alright," She smiled again while wiping away a single tear from her cheek. "Jenny grew up to be a strong and beautiful woman. She had a very happy life and that's all I ever wanted for her. And even though we couldn't talk anymore, I still checked up on her from time to time."

Jack swallowed the lump in his throat and looked down at the remote controller in his pale hands.

"Do think the same thing will happen with Jamie?" He asked. "The part about him forgetting me, I mean."

"After the adventure you guys had when Pitch returned? Never!" Tooth laughed. "I don't think anyone could ever forget about you, Jack Frost. Jamie _will_ grow up one day and there's no way to avoid that, but becoming an adult doesn't mean he has to stop believing in us. He will always be able to see you Jack if he's willing to believe you're there. I want you both to remember that."

"Thanks Tooth," Jack smiled. "I will."

Tooth was about to stand up and get back to work when she noticed the uneasiness in Jack's expression and the hesitation in his icy blue eyes. He had more on his mind.

Out of all the Guardians, Jack knew the least about Bunnymund. He even knew more about Sandy which was unbelievable since Sandy could only use sand signals to communicate. The cranky rabbit had his personal story locked up so tight in his head, that there was no way Jack could trick Bunny into accidentally spilling something interesting about himself. Jack was a very curious person, always has been and always will be.

"What was Bunny like with Alice?"

Tooth was slightly thrown off by the question. Jack could be immature at times, and oblivious to other people and their needs but he wasn't stupid, not by any means. He was able to pick up on the smallest things even if there was only the smallest bits of information provided.

Tooth was only aware of the basic facts about Alice Liddell's life and her relationship with Bunnymund; North and Sandy probably didn't know much more than she did either. However, they did know that Bunnymund's choice to separate himself from the children was because of what happened to Alice and his failure to help her. He wanted to avoid getting too attached to any of the children again.

When Bunny played with Sophie while they were preparing the Easter eggs two years ago, that was the first time in a _long_ time that Tooth had seen Bunnymund act like his old self again.

Tooth and North didn't have any good excuses explaining why they became so detached physically from the children, other than that they had become too wrapped up with their jobs. Sandy was a different story. He has been the same Sandman for centuries. Even though he constantly had to fly around the world and spread dreams almost non-stop, he _always_ found the time to stop and spin an extra special dream for a child who needed it.

Bunnymund, however, chose to pull away. It was a decision that nearly made him physically sick but he felt that it was something he had to do. He was determined to never feel responsible for not preventing a tragedy of a child again. But Bunny would still leave a couple of extra Easter Eggs for a child who was being left out of the Easter Egg hunt, or make an egg easier to find for another child who was having trouble finding any before his friends.

No matter how physically distant the Guardians got from the children, they never stopped doing the small stuff. She never stop giving coins of higher value to the kids that were extra good, and North and Bunnymund never stopped leaving extra gifts for the struggling children.

It was the small stuff that kept the faith alive in children even when they couldn't see the Guardians.

But going back to Jack's question, Tooth wasn't entirely sure how sensitive this whole Alice situation still was to Bunnymund. She did know, however, that he probably wouldn't appreciate her telling someone about his supposed past failings. Especially if that someone was Jack Frost. Bunnymund was a private person, or rather, he was a private rabbit.

"He was...he was_ truly_ the Spirit of Spring when he was with Alice," Tooth said, her voice cracked a little. "The way you saw him two years ago with Sophie, that was nothing compared to how he use to be. I know that it's hard to see him as anyone other than grumpy Bunnymund but believe me when I say, he wasn't always like that."

"What changed?" Jack asked. He listened to everything Tooth said at this point, hanging on to every word with pure fascination. She was right, it was hard for Jack to see Bunnymund differently from the pooka's usual boring demeanor.

Tooth sighed before her wings lifted and hummed with their usual frantic movements. Her fairies reluctantly flew off Jack's hoodie at their leader's gesture for them to follow. The soft wisps of air from all those beating wings made Jack's hair blow slightly into his face.

"It's not my place to say, but I hope nothing like it will ever happen to you and Jamie... or any other child for that matter," Tooth didn't want to sound too cryptic because of Jack Frost's curiosity. She hoped that Jack would pick up the hint to stop prying, which he did.

That didn't stop the questions in his head though.

"Bunnymund will be back soon, and hopefully with Alice," Tooth said while looking up at the workshop's skylight that revealed the beautiful moon. "I should get back to work."

The two guardians exchanged a temporary goodbye before Tooth flew off towards another section of the workshop to regroup with the rest of her fairies. Baby Tooth chose to stay behind and sit on Jack's shoulder. She let out a few worried squeaks when she noticed the perplexed expression on the winter spirit's face. Jack was pulled out of his thoughts by Baby Tooth tugging on his hoodie string. The mini fairy hovered a few inches from his face with the blue string still in her tiny grasp.

"I'm fine, Baby Tooth," Jack said, giving her a reassuring smile. "I was just thinking."

Jack still had more questions than answers but he decided to let it go for now. Today had been both physically and mentally exhausting for him. The _real_ reason he was late to the meeting wasn't because of traffic, as shocking as you might find it. Jack just got a little distracted.

He gave the North side of the United States a little early snowfall. He promised the other Guardians, more specifically Bunnymund, that he wouldn't cause any more unseasonal, or _unnecessary_, winter weather but he just couldn't help himself sometimes.

During the warm seasons, Jack usually stayed either at the North Pole or at his "domain" in Antarctica. His makeshift home in the icy desert consisted of only a large and artfully constructed ice cave, and a seemingly endless amount of penguins. The penguins were fun to play around with, and surprisingly better at Poker than he initially thought they would be, but Jack was a people person. He got bored easily when he was alone.

While he was making his way to the Pole, Jack noticed that some of the states were cold enough for a little snow. He didn't cause that much snow to fall, only enough for a decent sized snowball fight. The snow would melt by morning anyways.

Jack reached over and picked up the controller for the jumbo sized airplane. The plane wasn't big enough for him to be able to ride in it, but that didn't take any of the fun away from the fact that it was an over-sized toy airplane. Jack flipped on the power switch and a tiny green light blinked on.

"Now let's see what this thing can do," Jack smirked.

Baby Tooth sighed and shook her head as if to say, 'Oh boy, there he goes!'

* * *

Contrary to popular belief, a rabbit hole wasn't the only way one could travel to and from Wonderland. Incidentally, Bunnymund only uses the rabbit hole marbles to travel _to_ Wonderland, not from it. Deep in the Red Kingdom, Alice had set up a large, floor-to-ceiling mirror that acted as yet another portal. It was this mirror that Alice and Bunnymund used to travel back to the real world.

Regardless of whether he traveled through a mirror or a rabbit hole, the trip was still extremely unpleasant for Bunnymund.

The looking-glass portal opened up and the two landed just outside the main doors of North's Russian palace. Bunnymund suggested that they arrive here because he didn't want to startle the elves and yetis, but that wasn't his true reason for the suggestion. Well at least, not entirely the reason. The elves and yetis probably _would_ get startled if they appeared out of nowhere, and North wouldn't be too happy if there was a panic during the working hours.

The real reason for his suggestion was that Bunnymund didn't want Alice to become too overwhelmed by the sudden change. He knew that he wasn't giving Alice enough credit and that he was probably being a little protective, but this whole situation was very delicate. This was Alice's first trip outside of Wonderland in over a hundred years and this visit to the workshop needed to go smoothly, or else Alice wouldn't even consider becoming a Guardian. So to say that Bunnymund was stressed about this whole ordeal would be a serious understatement.

Alice, however, was a little more relaxed. Bunnymund told her repeatedly, much to Alice's chagrin, that St. North's Workshop was very secluded from the rest of the world. Alice trusted that Bunnymund wouldn't lead her into any danger, so she allowed herself to let go of some of her anxiety and focus more on observing her new surroundings. This was a great opportunity and privilege after all, it's not everyday you get to take a tour through the prized workshop of the famous Santa Claus.

Alice started to recall the Christmas tales her older sister, Lizzie, use to read to her when Alice was a little girl. Alice would curl up in her sister's lap with her beloved stuffed rabbit in her arms while Lizzie read her, _Twas the Night Before_ _Christmas._

She remembered helping her mother make gingerbread cookies. She also remembered her mother scolding her when Alice would spill flour all over her new holiday dress.

And her father's voice rang clear as a bell in her head as he told her about the jolly man in red.

_~Alice! You should be in your bed by now. Hurry along or Father Christmas will fly right over our house. You don't want him to skip our house just because a certain naughty girl didn't go to bed when she was suppose to, do you? No, of course not. Now off you go. Goodnight my Liddell girl.~_

Thinking about her family and memories no longer sent Alice into violent, guilt-filled breakdowns, but they did make the back of her eyes sting and her heart ache painfully. She still had those violent mood swings and outbursts from her memories of the fire, Rutledge Asylum, and the orphanage but after a hundred and thirty-seven years, they've become easier for her to control; her entire mind became easier for her to control. Which Alice considered a great improvement.

The two just stood outside the front doors without movement. Alice looked at the gray pooka standing next to her and his apprehensive expression.

_'By the look on his muzzle, one would think that it was Bunnymund's first time out of Wonderland and not mine,'_ Alice thought with amusement.

"Well? Are we going in anytime soon?" Alice said, this time out loud.

Bunnymund jumped slightly at Alice's voice. He looked at her and realized that they were just standing there. Bunnymund took a deep breath and hopped from one foot to the other, as if he was getting ready for a big race. Alice just rolled her eyes and put her hands behind her back, patiently waiting for her friend.

"Alright, are you sure you want to do this, Sheila?" Bunnymund asked.

"I seriously doubt I would have much of a choice otherwise," Alice mused. "After all, the _great_ Man in the Moon has chosen me and _heaven forbid_ I allow his orders to go unheeded."

"A simple yes or no would've gottin' your point across just fine," Bunnymund huffed after a short, annoyed pause. "The sarcasm was a little unnecessary."

"I'm sorry," Alice said softly, but held back a smile. "I'm positive I want to do this. I wouldn't have left my Wonderland if I wasn't. As long as my visit is confined to just this workshop, I'm certain I'll be able to handle this."

Bunnymund gave a nod before he knocked on the gigantic wooden doors. He seriously doubted that they needed to knock but it was too late now. The doors opened to reveal a gray yeti. The yeti had a monotonic expression on his face, but once he saw who was on the other side of the doors, he reeled back in surprise. He started to grumbled to his brothers in their yeti language. The yeti stepped aside after a few seconds and gestured for Alice and Bunnymund to come in.

Bunnymund walked straight past the yeti while Alice gave the large, furry creature a precarious look. The yeti caught her eye and gave her an enthusiastic wave. Perplexed, Alice politely waved back before she went to catch up with Bunnymund. She would have to make a note to herself to examine these strange creatures more closely some other time.

The front hall of the workshop was obviously not as exciting as the main part of the palace, but that didn't mean the hall was lacking any of the Christmas spirit. The halls were thoroughly decked with garland, red banners, and candles. The atmosphere of the workshop had an almost overwhelming scent of pine trees and gingerbread.

A couple of elves that were milling about suddenly stopped and stared at the new visitor. When Alice and Bunnymund walked past them, the elves snapped out of their stupor and started following behind them in excitement. Bunnymund almost laughed when he noticed the tiny elves following closely behind Alice.

Alice didn't even notice the small creatures yet. She was too distracted by the colossal hallway they were walking through. The hallway reminded Alice of the ones in the Red Kingdom, except the workshop walls and railings were made out of wood instead of hard marble. She found that she liked the wood better, it gave the domain a more cozy feel to it. The décor was obviously more festive than the Red Kingdom's, which Alice didn't mind at all.

Bunnymund saw the sudden lift in Alice's expression and the ease in her walk as her green eyes scanned the hall, taking in every last detail. The pooka smirked as a thought to himself: _'Wait 'till she sees the rest of this place.'_

When they reached the end of the hallway, a few yetis pushed open another pair of giant doors. Alice let out an audible gasp at the scene behind them.

They stood in the entrance of the main room of the domain, the Workshop.

As usual, the place was buzzing with activity as the yetis built and tested the toys while the elves did... whatever it was they usually did. Alice leisurely walked towards the center of the room where a gigantic world globe hovered up near the ceiling. With her mouth slightly open and her hand held up near her lips in shock, Alice slowly turned in circles as she tried to take in the area all at once. The dark-haired girl was in a complete state of awe.

Alice never knew such a _wondrous_ place existed outside her Wonderland. The main appeal of the workshop for Alice wasn't the toys or the interesting creatures (although being an animal lover, Alice considered the yetis a close second best). No, it was the fact that this place was _real_. It existed in the real world and more importantly, it wasn't created by Alice's imagination. It was created by someone else's imagination.

Not in the literal sense like Wonderland, but the structure, the foundation, the décor, the whole _idea_ came from someone else. Wonderland was now real (just located in another_ dimension), _but Alice was still able to appreciate someone else's amazing craftsmanship. Already, she held a deep admiration for the creator of this place, who she assumed was Nicolas St. North.

Bunnymund crossed his arms and watched Alice. As she looked up towards the giant globe, she held up one of her small, pale hands above her head and allowed bits of gold confetti to collect in her palm. The pooka pulled his gaze away from Alice and looked up towards the fourth floor of the workshop where he could see part of the door to North's office. And as if on cue, the door swung open and Bunnymund saw the familiar large man making his way towards a nearby staircase. Bunnymund started walking over to Alice while weaving through passing yetis.

By now, Alice noticed the small legion of elves that have followed her around. She was sitting down on the floor with her legs tucked under her, watching their odd, but endearing, behavior. She laughed when two of the impish helpers started having a frantic slap fight, but eventually, they tired themselves out. One particularly brave elf scurried up to Alice with a Christmas tree shaped sugar cookie, he held it out to her and blushed when she took it with a thank you.

"Having fun?" Bunnymund mused as Alice put the cookie in her apron pocket.

"Oh Bunny, aren't they just the most curious things you have ever seen?" Alice asked while she reached out and lightly tugged on one of the elves' bell hat. The elf got a goofy smile on his face before he fainted. "Certainly less gruesome looking than my card guards."

The pooka opened his mouth to comment on the obvious crush North's elves had on her, but he stopped short when his sensitive rabbit ears picked up the jolly codger's booming voice coming down from the second level of the workshop. Bunnymund held out a paw to help Alice up off the floor. Once standing, Alice smoothed out her white apron and blue dress before looking up at her friend.

"You ready, ankle biter?" Bunnymund asked. She placed her hands behind her back and nodded. "Good, because here comes North."

Alice looked in the direction that Bunnymund was pointing and saw a tall figure pushing its way through a crowd of yetis. She heard a deep, powerful voice scold the small elves that were apparently blocking his path.

"Oh, and one more thing," Bunnymund leaned over and whispered. "Don't get alarmed but North can be a bit-"

Bunnymund was cut off when Nicholas St. North pushed through the last of the yeti crowd and into the open area. Alice was able to get a good look at the very tall, rotund man before he walked straight up to the pair, without any hesitation, and picked up a bewildered Alice by her waist like she was as light as feather. He held her up to his level and placed a quick kiss on each of her cheeks before placing her back on her feet.

"-forward," Bunnymund finished with an irritated mumble and a sigh while Alice stood there dumbstruck and speechless.

"_Dobro Pozhalovat_, Alice Liddell!" North announced in his usual loud and proud way. "_Welcome_, to the North Pole!" (3)

* * *

**AN: Ha! Finished! I originally wanted this chapter to include the introduction of all the Guardians but when I got to this part, I absolutely_ had_ to end the chapter here. It was too funny and prefect to pass up! **

**I hope my description of North's workshop was good enough. We don't see too much of the workshop other than the main room and I also don't have the movie to use as visual refresher. **

**Also, I've gotten a few reviews in Spanish (I pretty sure it's Spanish but not completely sure) and I would very much like a translation so I can see what they say. I'm lame, I only know English and a small amount of Latin (which I took in my freshmen year and failed _epically_). **

**(1) I assume that the Big Four didn't become Guardians all at once. I think the order from oldest to youngest is: Sandman, North, Bunnymund, Tooth, and then Jack Frost.**

**(2) ROTG wiki said that Jack was seventeen but I wanted to make him eighteen so he could be closer to Alice's age, which is nineteen. I don't think it's a big whoop that I aged him by a year, do you?**

**(3) I am SO sorry if I butchered the Russian language! I hope what I wrote was Russian for 'Welcome' and if it's not, let me know and I'll change it immediately!**

**I'm REALLY nervous about how this chapter went so please let me know what you guys think. And you guys know the drill, if you see any grammar or spelling mistakes in the chapter, let me know and I'll fix them.**

**~Scorpiofreak~**


	5. Chapter 5: Bad first impressions

**AN: Hey everybody! **

**In this chapter there's a tender Bunny and Tooth moment. I do find the Bunny/Tooth couple really adorable so they will have a few cute moments every now and again. Maybe I'll make them a legit side couple later if you guys don't mind the Sweet Tooth pairing. **

**I don't have much to say in this Author's Note. The note at the end is probably much longer.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own ROTG or A:MR.**

* * *

North stood there completely oblivious to the dumbfounded stares he was receiving. Bunnymund wanted to slap his forehead with his paw for forgetting about North's overly friendly nature.

_'Oh lordy, we haven't even been here twenty minutes and already things are going south!'_ Bunnymund thought miserably. _'And here I thought Jack was gonna be the one to screw things up!'_

Alice's feet were rooted to the ground as she blinked vacantly up at the stranger who had been so brazen with her. Back when she was human, any man who tried to get unnecessarily close to her would have gotten a good slap to the face or a kick in the-

"I hope you are liking my workshop," North said before he noticed the elves near Alice's feet. "I see my elves are being the good little helpers. They certainly like you, don't they?"

Alice tried to conjure up the rage she needed to give this mountain man a piece of her mind, but ultimately, she found that she couldn't. She never felt that familiar build up of anger in her stomach.

It had always been easy for her to lash out at the burly sailors that lurked around the Mangled Mermaid Saloon back in London. Those men were just a bunch of lecherous perverts who deserved to be treated as such. This man, however, seemed to be the exact opposite. He had such a friendly and welcoming aura surrounding him that it simply overpowered any negative feelings in the entire Russian palace. He made it difficult for someone to be angry at him.

Luckily, Alice's problem with her mouth being far ahead of her mind wasn't an issue at that moment due to the fact that North had rendered her speechless, which possibly saved her from causing a scene.

Alice remembered that cheek kissing was an affectionate gesture among family and even close friends, but it certainly wasn't a greeting you would use with a complete stranger. The fact that this man would greet someone he's never even met before with such a meaningful gesture completely bewildered Alice, and it was that bewilderment that kept Alice from pulling out her Vorpal Blade...for the moment.

The man looked down at Alice with such a prideful, and utterly _joyful_ expression. It was as if she was his estranged daughter who finally decided to come back home. She also didn't fail to notice the child-like gleam that shined in his sky blue eyes, despite his seasoned age.

"I-I do. I mean yes, I really do like your Workshop," Alice said once she collected herself. "It's amazing."

"Bah! I'm sure it is _nothing_ compared to your Wonderland," North said with a scoff and a short laugh. "From what I hear from Bunny, _that_ is truly an amazing place."

Not use to flattery, Alice looked down at her boots and started toying with the end of her apron.

"Thank You, Mr. North," Alice replied back politely; _almost_ giving a curtsy.

Bunnymund once told her that curtsies were mostly outdated. She wasn't sure if they would be an appropriate greeting in this situation or not. Before she became a spirit, Alice's social skills were shoddy at best, but she could only imagine how horrendous they would be in modern times.

Alice jumped at North's sudden loud laughter. He held his stomach as his body shook, laughing like he had just heard a hilarious joke.

_'What a strange man,_' Alice observed before she let a thoughtful smile spread across her face._ 'But also refreshingly eccentric and charismatic. A delightful combination if I do say so myself.' (1)_

"There is no need to use such formalities, Alice," North said once he calmed down. "You are among friends here! Now come, let's be heading up the stairs to the fireplace. The other Guardians will be wanting to meet you. Do you want anything to drink or eat? I'm sure my elves will bring you anything you want!"

Alice shook her head, declining his offers, as she let him lead her to the nearby staircase. Bunnymund let out a sigh of relief and followed close behind.

_'So far, so good,"_ He thought.

~O~

At first glance, Alice could have sworn that the hovering fairy above the fireplace mantle was a creature from the Vale of Tears. She briefly considered the idea that something followed her and Bunnymund out of Wonderland, but she let the thought go when she didn't recognize the fairy as any of her creations.

The fairy was obviously female with her curved body and brightly colored feathers. They were a mixture of colors like, green, teal, blue, yellow, and a little violet around the ends of her tail feathers. On her back were large, buzzing insect wings. Her strange and unique appearance appealed to Alice and she thought that the fairy was a very pretty and fascinating creature.

The fairy was facing the fireplace with her back towards the approaching three. She was too busy talking frantically with a group of smaller fairies. She was naming off different cities, states, and countries while pointing at each mini fairy. Once a small fairy had its orders, it would quickly fly off and be replaced by another.

When they reached the top of the stairs, North stood behind Alice and gently guided her closer to the center of the room.

"Tooth! Come over here. We have new visitor!" He called.

Tooth immediately turned around and gasped when she saw Alice. With incredible speed, Tooth flew towards the girl and pulled her into a big hug.

"You came! I can't believe you're here, standing right in front of me after all these years!" Tooth gushed before she raised her hands to gently hold Alice's face. "And you've grown up to be so beautiful! I'm so glad you agreed to come! Now open up and let me see your teeth!"

"P-pardon?" Alice stuttered, not quite sure she heard that last part correctly. She took two cautionary steps back, all the attention she was receiving was really starting to get to Alice. There was only so much physical contact a recluse, like herself, can take in one day.

Tooth reached out towards Alice's mouth, but before she could violate Alice's personal space on a whole new and creative level, North quickly cut in. Even friendly St. North thought that some of Tooth's mannerisms could be a little unsettling sometimes, especially for people who weren't use to them.

"Tooth, you are harassing one of my guests again," North said with an amused scold. He could never be truly mad at the Tooth Fairy, she was just too lovable. "Save the teeth checking for later."

"Oh right, sorry," Tooth blushed in embarrassment. She smiled sheepishly and rubbed her arm. "Force of habit."

Tooth pulled away from Alice but continued to hover close by. Her mini fairies were next to their leader, sizing up the new stranger in the room. Just like Tooth, they barely resisted the urge to fly into the girl's face and pry open her mouth so they could see her teeth.

"Sorry, Alice, for being so forward," The fairy said. Remembering what era Alice grew up in, Tooth took the courtesy of doing a small curtsy with her tail feathers. "I'm Toothiana, the Tooth Fairy, but you can just call me Tooth."

"It's alright, I suppose. I'm Alice Liddell," She replied back, also with a small curtsy. She knew it was a bit redundant to state her name since Tooth already knew it, but she did so anyways. One can't forget her manners after all.

There was a moment of silence in the room as Tooth continued to look at Alice. The moment was saved from becoming an awkward one when Tooth's pink eyes suddenly started to tear up. Tooth let out another embarrassed laugh before she flew up higher in the air to compose herself.

"I'm sorry for getting all emotional," She sniffled and wiped her eyes. "I just still can't believe you're here! I haven't seen you in so long!"

"But we've never met before," Alice said, her eyebrows knotted in confusion.

At the sound of Bunnymund loudly and conspicuously clearing his throat, Tooth's eyes widened as she realized that she probably said something she shouldn't have. Her and Bunnymund exchanged quick glances from across the room. Alice looked in between them with suspicion.

"...Have we?" Alice asked.

Her accusing gaze was now focused on Bunnymund. The six-foot rabbit flinched, he was going to get such a verbal thrashing from the girl later. Alice's rants were known to be deadly and very effective. They were even worse than North's! The old codger rarely got upset about anything, but when he did, he could guilt trip you into feeling lower than dirt.

A short, unspoken conversation passed between the two Guardians before Bunnymund gave Tooth a nod. The fairy floated down closer to the ground.

"Well, we have, but not directly," Tooth explained. "We've never met officially but _we've_ known _you_ ever since you were a little girl. I collected your baby teeth, North left you gifts on Christmas, the Sandman gave you all your good dreams, and of course, you hid Easter eggs with Bunny."

"I _never_ had good dreams as a child," Alice spat unexpectedly. Tooth recoiled immediately as if Alice's words physically burnt her.

Perhaps what Alice had said wasn't entirely true. She vaguely remember dreaming about her old Wonderland as a child, but as usual, those memories were quickly swallowed by hellish flames, dying screams of her loved ones, and obsidian black ooze. Later, Alice will greatly regret snapping at the kind woman, but she _hated_ it when people brought up her past, even if they were the good parts.

Bunnymund quickly stepped forward and placed his paw on Alice's shoulder. He recognized the telltale signs of Alice's rapidly spiking temperament. Revealing to Alice that a handful of strangers already knew who she was probably wasn't a very smart move on Tooth's part, but Bunnymund couldn't place any blame on the poor Tooth Fairy. If anything, it was Bunnymund's fault for not warning the other Guardians ahead of time about what _not_ to say around Alice Liddell.

"Hey North!" Bunnymund called to the rotund man who had left the conversation soon after it had started. North was in the middle of arguing with a yeti, who was painting a large pile of robots the wrong shade of green, when he heard his name.(2)

"Why don't ya give Alice a tour of the Workshop?"

"Excellent idea, Bunny!" North exclaimed, his face lighting up instantly. North was a big show off and he always jumped at the chance to give a tour of his beloved workshop. With a large hand, North motioned for Alice to follow him. "Come, let me show you _my_ Wonderland."

When Alice looked at Bunnymund, the pooka just gave her a guilty smile and jerked his head in North's direction.

"Go on, I'll catch up with ya later," Bunnymund assured her.

After some hesitation, Alice slowly made her way over to North. He allowed her to descend the staircase first and followed behind her. Bunnymund waited for the two to disappear before making his way over to Tooth. The fairy had a forlorn expression on her face as she hung in the air, watching the teenage girl's departure. The Easter Bunny felt slightly disturbed by the sad look. Negative expressions like those didn't belong on Tooth's face.

Once Bunnymund was within a close distance of his friend, Tooth engulfed him in a tight huge. Thrown off by the sudden move, Bunnymund felt his face grow hot and his heart beat faster. He was use to Tooth's affectionate behavior by now, but her touch never failed to bring out such strong reactions in him.

"Oh, Aster," Tooth mumbled into his fur. "The first time I get an opportunity to reunite with one of our lost believers and I screw it up!"

"It's alright, Tooth," Bunnymund said while patting her back. "It wasn't that bad. Trust me, me an' Alice's first reunion was ten times as awkward as yours."

"I hope I didn't upset her too badly," Tooth pulled back and looked up at her furry companion. "I was just so nervous and excited!"

"Don't worry about it," Bunnymund insisted. "Alice is pretty resilient and bounces back quickly when insulted... not that you did, of course! Just take it easy on the physical contact and she'll warm up to you in no time."

Tooth wiped her eyes again before letting out a sigh.

"Alright, if you say so Bunny."

"That's the spirit, Sheila."

"...Aster," Tooth started after a brief silence. Bunnymund swallowed the lump in his throat and nervously flexed his paws. Whenever Tooth said his name like that, it usually meant she was going to bring up something serious and/or personal. "I want to talk to you about your past with Alice."

When Bunnymund didn't reply back, Tooth let out another sigh.

"You do know that if Alice decides to become a Guardian, North will want to know everything you know, and more. We all know about the fire and death of her family...and we also _vaguely_ know about the asylum. North, Sandy, and I all agreed that we won't pressure Alice into telling us anything until she wants to, but we would like to hear your side of the story." (3)

The gray pooka stood there, taking in her words. After a minute, he exhaled deeply from his nose and reached up to rub the back of his head, his big ears drooping down considerably.

"I know, and you're right," He said. "I'll tell you guys. Not now, but soon. I promise I'll tell you all...except Frost."

Tooth gave Bunnymund a smile and pulled him into another hug. She ignored the comment about Jack for now, but secretly, she agreed with Bunnymund. Because he's only been a Guardian for such a short time, Jack didn't need to know _everything_ that goes on.

However, the eldest Guardians needed to know if Alice was qualified enough to be a Guardian, and whether or not the children would be safe around her. Although, Tooth was positive that the Man in the Moon had a good reason for choosing Alice Liddell. He obviously wouldn't have chosen her if she was any danger to the children.

Tooth was ecstatic that Bunny was going to tell them everything. She hoped to MIM that by confiding in his follow teammates, Bunnymund would finally stop blaming himself for what happened.

Toothiana had a very good feeling about all of this. She just knew that this potential addition to their 'family' would only make things better for everyone.

"Thank you, Bunny!"

"No problem," He muttered.

Bunnymund allowed the hug to go longer than the first one. He stood there gladly taking in the warm comfort of his close friend. The silence was very calm and pleasant, until a certain teasing voice cut in.

"Awww, can I have a hug too, Bunny?"

The instantly annoyed pooka pulled away from Tooth and turned to glare at the winter spirit. Jack Frost stood over by the globe, leaning against the control system near the base of it. His staff was resting on his shoulder and he held something in his hand. As usual, Baby Tooth hovered nearby.

Jack gave the flustered rabbit a cocky smirk.

"How long have you been standing there?" Bunnymund growled.

"Long enough," He responded nonchalantly but quickly changed his answer when Bunnymund's scowl grew worse. "Calm down ya big softy, I just got here like, literally, five seconds ago. I didn't hear any of your pillow talk, I swear."

Jack rolled his eyes when Bunnymund continued to give him a disbelieving glare. Even after the big adventure two years ago, Bunnymund still thought Jack was an immature show-off who'd prefer to goof off and not take anything seriously.

Now don't get the impression that Bunnymund still didn't like the young spirit because that wasn't true at all. Frost could act like such a spoiled child sometimes, but when push comes to shove, the kid knew where his priorities lie and was a pretty decent ally to have in a fight.

His upbeat and fun personality was a breath of fresh air for the elder Guardians. He helped them rediscover their passion for making children smile and reminded them of the reasons why they were made Guardians all those years ago. Bunnymund would never admit it out loud to the teen, but he really did appreciate all that Jack had done for them. It did take a little convincing at first, but now, Bunnymund fully believed that Jack Frost was truly meant to be a Guardian.

That didn't make him any less annoying though.

Despite being named the Guardian of Fun, it seemed like to Bunnymund that Jack's _true_ main purpose in life was to make things as unnecessarily difficult as possible for the Easter Bunny.

"Just ask Baby Tooth if you don't believe me."

At the mentioning of her name, Baby Tooth squeaked and nodded at Bunnymund.

Before the pooka could comment on how completely biased a love-struck, mini fairy's word would be in this situation, Tooth cut in to avoid another argument between the Winter and Spring spirits.

"There you are Jack!" Tooth smiled. "We have good news. Bunny was able to convince Alice to come to the Pole."

"Hmm, is that so?" Jack mused while still smirking at Bunnymund. "Where is she then?"

"North's givin' her a tour of the Workshop," Bunnymund grumbled while crossing his arms. "We should probably go find them."

Tooth nodded in agreement as she flew along side the pooka. Bunnymund figured that the two were probably somewhere on the ground floor by now. Maybe North was showing Alice the reindeer. Bunnymund had mentioned to him before that Alice had an affinity for animals.

While Bunnymund started to descend down the stairs, Tooth looked back and noticed that Jack wasn't following. He was too busy flying a jumbo sized airplane around the ceiling of the Workshop. She smiled fondly at the playful gleam in his eyes as he flew the plane around the other airborne toys in the factory. Guardian of fun indeed.

"Jack put that down and come with us," Tooth said. "North will want to have another meeting once Sandy shows up and I want you to meet Alice."

The Tooth Fairy was excited for Jack to meet Alice. Even though Jack has been a spirit longer than Alice, the two were roughly around the same age. Jack was eighteen and if memory serves well, Alice was nineteen. Tooth thought that the two might find a companion in each other due to their close ages. It certainly wouldn't be a bad thing for Jack. She recalled all the times where she had seen him mill about the Workshop in complete boredom.

"Go ahead, I'll catch up in a minute," Jack said while getting the plane in route to land.

"Alright, just don't take too long," She said before flying down towards the ground floor.

Jack pulled back on the controller and watched as the plane glided towards him. After some careful maneuvering, Jack was able to expertly land the plane on a Workshop table. He smiled and silently congratulated himself for his accomplishment before turning towards Baby Tooth. The small fairy quickly started to applaud her icy friend while Jack gave her a couple exaggerated bows.

"We might as well go find the others and meet this Alice, Baby Tooth," Jack said. Jack started to walk over to the staircase while Baby Tooth followed close behind.

He must have not been looking where he was going because Jack tripped over an elf carrying a tray of sugar cookies. The teen let out a surprised shout before he fell to the ground, landing harshly on his knees and then his stomach. The airplane controller that use to be in Jack's hand was now sailing through the air.

Jack flinched when it hit the stone ground with a brutal crack. After a couple of seconds, Jack heard the sound of whirling airplane propellers and electrical sparks.

The airplane on the nearby workshop table sparked violently. The propellers were spinning at a speed that Jack seriously doubted was normal for a toy plane. With one last bright spark, the plane rolled towards the end of the table and took off into the air at a dangerous speed.

"Well that can't be good," Jack said. Baby Tooth looked at her friend before slapping a tiny palm to her forehead.

* * *

Finding Alice and North hadn't been that difficult. When Bunnymund reached the main floor, he immediately spotted the two standing around a workshop table watching a yeti build a massive dollhouse out of wood. Alice stood with her arms crossed over the table's surface and her head resting on top. Her eyes watched as the large furry creature carved intricate designs into the dark wood.

When North noticed Tooth and Bunnymund approaching, He walked towards them and gestured to the girl with a gloating smile on his face. North had never been very good young adults; they were always so difficult to please, especially in modern times. So he was quite proud of himself for being able to impress Alice with his workshop.

"Do I have way with the teenagers or what?" He laughed.

"Thanks, North," Tooth said. "I was worried that I ran her off! I'm glad everything's okay now. We found Jack but where's Sandy?"

"He should be getting here soon enough," North replied. "I bet a whole fruit cake that he's on his way now."

"How's she doing?" Bunnymund asked with a nod towards Alice.

"Fantastic! She didn't seem too interested in the finished toys but I knew I had her when I showed her the reindeer!"

"That's great North," Bunnymund said. "Everything's going great. Once Sandy shows up, we'll have another meeting to try to convince Alice to become a Guardian."

"Wait, you mean she hasn't already agreed?" Tooth asked.

"Eh... no, not exactly," Bunnymund scratched the back of his head. "I was only able to convince her to visit the Workshop for a short awhile. I told her that if she decided that she didn't want to be a Guardian, I would take her back home to Wonderland."

"But Bunny," North crossed his arms over his chest. "You know that no one can say no when Man in Moon chooses a new Guardian."

"I know, I know, but it's not like we can _make_ her take the oath," Bunnymund said. "No one can make Alice do anything she doesn't want to. Just give her some time to re-adjust to the world and she'll come around eventually."

"_Eventually?_" North gave a gasping laugh of disbelief.

"Well, we're not exactly being rushed here," Bunnymund chuckled. "There isn't an imminent threat hangin' over us like there was when MiM chose Frost."

North stood up straighter and regarded his friend while thoughtfully stroking his beard. After a few seconds, he let out his usual powerful laugh and roughly patted Bunnymund on the back. The affectionate gesture knocked the gray pooka forward a couple of inches.

"Alright, I see your point, Bunny," He said. "Let me grab Alice and we'll go start meeting."

* * *

Alice heard North before she saw him.

His loud pounding footsteps were hard to miss even among the noise of the Workshop. She turned away from the yeti and his dollhouse, and looked up at North. His body towered over hers excessively.

_'I'm going to get very serious neck pains at this rate.'_

She noticed Bunnymund and Tooth standing next to a nearby staircase. Tooth waved sheepishly at her while Bunnymund was turning down eggnog from a yeti.

"Where are the other Guardians?" Alice asked North. "Bunny said there were five total."

"The Sandman is running a little late but he will be here soon," North replied. "As for Jack Frost, he should be around here somewh-"

_"Everybody get down!"_

At the sound of the unfamiliar male voice, Alice looked up towards the top floor of the Workshop. She could barely make out the blue cladded figure through all the flying toys and gold confetti in the air. She could see, however, that he was standing on the railing, waving his arms around frantically.

"Who on earth is that?" Alice asked. North, who was also looking up, ignored her question and shouted at the person.

"Jack! What is meaning of this?"

"_That!"_ He shouted back while pointing at a toy airplane that was flying uncontrollably around the Workshop, reeking havoc among the factory and it's workers. Black smoke trailed behind the faulty toy like a sky banner.

They watched as it soared through the different levels of the Workshop, knocking over half built toys and startling the yetis. At one point, the airplane hit a large stack of green robots, much to a certain yeti's dismay, and sent them scattering over the side of the railing. The robots rained over the occupants of the main floor. They quickly moved around trying to avoid being hit.

Because she wasn't in the mood to jump around like there were ants in her stockings, Alice had her blue umbrella shield materialize into her hands. She held the protective parasol above her head as several robots hit the shield and bounced off.

Once the robots stopped falling, Alice looked back up at the airplane just in time to see it charging straight for her and North. It made a high pitch whining noise as it drew closer. Alice prepared to dodge, but before the raging toy could hit them, a patch of ice appeared under their feet. Alice tried to keep her balance but the ice effectively brought down both Alice and North, and even a few yetis nearby.

They all landed in a pile of tangled limbs and fur.

Out of reach of the ice patch, Bunnymund and Tooth had their own problems dealing with a swarm of panicking elves at their feet. After almost toppling over the small creatures, Bunnymund glared up at the winter spirit.

"Jack, you rotten gumbie! Stop messin' with that thing before I come up there and-"

To busy shouting at Jack, Bunnymund failed to notice the airplane flying towards him.

It clipped him harshly in the back of the head before it, thankfully, flew into a wall. The force of the hit sent the poor pooka to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

Alice, who had landed painfully on her backside, looked over at Bunnymund to see him sprawled out over the stone floor. She let out a worried gasp before the anger quickly took over. Her eyes immediately locked and hardened on a certain winter spirit.

After witnessing the chaos he had caused, Jack flew down to the main floor to apologize. He hoped to MiM that the Easter Bunny wouldn't club him with a boomerang when he finally came to.

When his bare feet touched the floor, he started to make his way over to Bunnymund, but before he could reach the pooka, his path was suddenly blocked by a cloud of blue dust and..._butterflies_?

Jack didn't even get a chance to react before a small pair of hands appeared from the swarm of blue emperor butterflies. The hands shoved him roughly on the chest and sent him stumbling backwards. As Jack tried to regain his balance, the butterfly swarm depleted and disappeared.

Standing in their place was a very angry-looking girl.

When the Guardian of Fun finally found his balance, he gave the offending girl a once-over. She had long, dark, brown hair, peach pale skin, and the most stunning emerald-green eyes that Jack had ever seen on a person. She wore a blue dress, white apron with red paint splatter on it (or at least what Jack hoped was red paint), black and white stockings and black boots with silver buckles.

The glare she was giving him was so intense that it almost made him flinch. They were the same height but Jack felt almost two inches tall under her piercing gaze.

"What on earth do you think you are doing!" The girl practically screeched.

"I um, ugh, huh?" Jack stuttered lamely.

"Just look at what you did to poor Bunnymund, you bloody dodo!" Alice continued to shout at the dumbstruck, teenage boy in front of her.

"Hey! I wasn't _trying_ to hit Bunny! It was an accident, lady!" Jack snapped. "Now stop harping at me and move so I can see if Bunny is alright."

Alice was about to give this rude boy a piece of her mind when suddenly his appearance fully registered in her head. Her eyes quickly took in his icy pale skin, white hair, and crystal blue eyes. Further inspection of his frost covered clothes left no doubt in Alice's mind the identity of the person standing in front of her.

Alice's first impression of the winter spirit wasn't very good to begin with, due to Bunny's constant complaints, but this little _incident_ certainly didn't do anything to help improve her opinion of him. She was already prepared to treat him like anyone else she didn't like; callously.

Alice shifted her weight on to one foot and crossed her arms before fixing her opponent with another glare.

"You must be the infamous Jack Frost," Alice stated rather than asked.

Jack relaxed his defensive stance once he saw the girl lower hers. He couldn't help but feel a bit out of the loop. She obviously knew him but he had no idea who she was.

Jack threw a glance behind her at the other Guardians. Bunny was conscious again but he was still sitting on the floor. Tooth was kneeling next to him while North stood close by. At the moment, Jack was apparently spared a beating from Bunny and a lecture from Tooth because their full attention was on him and the girl.

It looked like he was on his own this time.

"Yeah, I am," Jack said with a suspicious edge to his tone, his eyes narrowing slightly. "Who are you?"

"Alice Liddell," Alice replied back confidently before switching back into her rant mode. "What kind of moron flies a miniature airplane into a highly populated area? Not only did you almost decapitate poor Bunny, but you also caused the elves to fall into a wide-spread panic and-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Wait a minute!" Jack interrupted with a pale hand raised. "_You're_ Alice?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize I had stuttered," Alice said. Frost's interruption only made her even more irritated; if that was even possible. "Yes, I'm Alice and _you, _Mr. Frost_,_ are starting to get on my last nerve."

"You've gotta be kidding me," Jack laughed, completely ignoring what she had just said. "Hey, aren't you suppose to be blonde?"

Jack felt a little stupid for not realizing who she was earlier. The blue dress and white apron should have given it away, but then again, Jack never really paid much attention to detail. He considered himself to be more of a 'big picture' kind of guy.

All of the Winter spirit's irritation flew out the window and was replaced with curiosity and amusement. Jack smirked while he leaned back casually on his staff. His change in attitude and nonchalant nature only seemed to annoy Alice more.

From Alice's point of view, it felt like he wasn't taking her seriously and Alice _hated_ that.

"Well, clearly I am not," Alice almost growled. She was barely resisting the overwhelming urge to pull out her Hobby Horse and teach this disrespectful teen some much needed manners. "You must be thinking of-"

"You don't look anything like the Alice in the story books."

"Yes, I know. I'm trying-"

"But then again, nobody expects the Easter Bunny to be a six-foot-one, grumpy pooka with an Australian accent."

"_Stop interrupting me!"_ Alice shouted, her frustration finally reaching it's limit.

"Sheesh, calm down," Jack laughed after seeing how worked up the girl was getting. He thought it was kind of funny. "I'm just trying to be friendly."

"I think you're confusing the word_ friendly_ with the word _annoying_ because that is the very last thing you are being!" Alice snapped.

"You're not exactly 'Little Miss Sunshine' yourself, girly."

Alice finally had enough of this.

She decided to keep her Vorpal blade away because Frost wasn't armed with anything truly lethal, but that didn't mean a rightly placed fist to the temple wouldn't do him any damage.

With her emerald eyes solely focused on the smug boy, Alice practically stomped towards the Winter Spirit. But before she could reach him, a large arm suddenly blocked her way.

"Alright you two," North said sternly. "That is enough."

"North's right," Tooth joined in once Bunny was back on his feet. "We all got off on the wrong foot here, but let's just take a deep breath and calm down."

"Yeah, knock it off Frost before I decide to hit _you_ in the head with a toy," Bunnymund growled while rubbing the back of his head.

"Oh right, sorry Bunny," Jack apologized and gave the pooka a guilty smile.

"Come, come," North loudly clapped his hands three times. "The yetis tell me that dinner is ready and that Sandy is already in the dining hall. Let's put all these bad first impression behind us and eat!"

At the word 'eat,' all the nearby elves immediately started running towards the dining hall in excitement. North just laughed and shook his head at his little workers before he started to follow their lead. Tooth shot Jack a disapproving look and pointed at him.

"We'll talk about this later young man," She scolded.

Jack almost winced at the 'threat' as he watched Tooth fly off after North. He didn't even have to look at Bunny to know that he was also still in trouble with the Easter Pooka, but it seemed like Bunny wasn't planning on yelling at him just yet. He'll probably wait until after dinner so he doesn't have to strangle Jack on an empty stomach.

So instead of looking at the gray rabbit, Jack glanced over at Alice. She was still giving him the evil eye but she didn't look as mad as she was two minutes ago, which Jack figured was a good thing.

He gave her a mocking wink before gesturing with his staff for her to follow everyone else. When Alice only scowled in return, Jack just shrugged his shoulders and walked off towards the dining hall with his staff swinging slightly in his hand and Baby Tooth by his side.

Alice watched him walked away until he disappeared into a different section of the Workshop. Once he was gone, Alice glared back at Bunnymund.

Bunny's ears drooped down when he read the very clear message in her expression:_ 'I'm still mad at you, Mister Bunnymund.'_

"Okay, that didn't go exactly as I planned but..." Bunny started to say but Alice just shook her head.

"Nevermind, Bunny," She said curtly. "Let's just go eat."

"I am really sorry your first visit in the Outside World turned out this way Alice."

"I know, Bunny," Alice sighed. "But I suppose it's still not over yet."

* * *

**AN: Alright, fess up! Who thought this was going to be a 'love-at-first-sight' kind of story? Nope! Scorpiofreak doesn't role that way! Anyways, I'm SUPER nervous about this chapter because I got writer's block when I got to the point where Jack and Alice start talking to each other, which is why there was such a delay in update. Plus, this chapter is pretty long for me so it took me a while to edit!**

**(1) I usually don't make a character's thoughts sound so... uh _thoughtful _(if that makes any sense!), but if you guys played the Alice games then you know that over half of Alice's dialogue is like that.**

**(2) Aww! Poor robot painting yeti! He never gets a break!**

**(3) Other than Bunny, the other Guardians don't know much about what happened to Alice after the fire because she never met them before this chapter, but they know the obvious basic details about her life.**

**Like I said before, I had a lot to edit in this chapter (because I don't have a beta reader) so I might have missed a lot of mistakes. So if you find any just point them out in a review and I'll edit it.**

**Super nervous! Hope you guys loved it!**

**~Scorpiofreak!**


	6. Chapter 6: Dinner and a warning

**AN: Thanks for all the lovely reviews! Over one hundred! That's awesome!**

**Sorry for the recent delays. I don't like taking this long to update but school has really been kicking my ass lately and I'm a senior in high school so I really need to stay on top of things. Believe me, I don't disappear for months just to piss you guys off. I try to work on new chapters whenever I can, but I tend to fall behind when I'm trying to make chapters that are at least 5,000 words in length, and of course I have to edit it all afterwards. The good news is that I have less than two weeks of school left for this year and I plan on just chilling out for the summer so I'll obviously have more time to update more often!**

**I will also start adding song lyrics to the beginning of my chapters. Cliché I know but I thought it would help set the tone of the chapter. I won't add a song to every chapter if I can't think of one, but if you think of a good song that matches a song less chapter, than leave me a review and I'll check it out! **

**Okay, this opening note has been pretty long. I'll shut up now!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own ROTG or AMR. **

* * *

_It's coming down to nothing more than apathy_  
_ I'd rather run the other way than stay and see_  
_ The smoke and who's still standing when it clears_

_Everyone knows I'm in_  
_ Over my head._

_Over My Head (Cable Car) ~The Fray_

* * *

The Dining Hall was just as grandiose and lofty as the rest of North's Workshop.

The dining table stretched far across the room to the other side. Even from a distance it was easy to see that the table was made of lovely, dark oak wood with a glossy varnish coat. Chairs made of the same wooden material lined up along each side of the table. They had long backs and plush red cushions with silver stitch designs woven into the cloth.

The hall itself was decorated to match the rest of the workshop. Large red and gold banners hung from the railings near the ceiling, a festive-looking chandelier that shined beautifully was suspended high over the table, and large tapestries ornamented the walls; depicting valiant and fierce battles involving North and several yetis fighting against shadows shaped like malicious monsters.

And just like in every other room in the Russian Palace, there was a grand fireplace, with a roaring fire already burning, behind the head of the table.

The dining table was set with fine silverware and porcelain dishes, but only a relatively small portion of the table had food on it. It made sense though, there would only be six people dining that evening.

When Alice entered the hall behind Bunnymund, she immediately noticed North, who was sitting at the head of the table, talking to a smaller figure. From a distance, the figure resembled a small boy but the closer Alice came to the table, she was able to see that he was an extremely short man who appeared to be garbed in an outfit made of golden sand. He was very stout with small hands and feet, and his gold hair stuck up into the air at different angles.

The short man had a chalice of eggnog in one hand while his other rested on the edge of the table. He nodded in response to North's words as he went to take a drink from his cup, but stopped when he noticed Alice from the corner of his eye. He immediately started smiling and the sand that covered his body glowed brighter. With a wave of his hand, the man motioned for Alice to take the seat next to him.

After hesitating for a few seconds, Alice silently accepted his invitation by taking the offered seat. She noted with a low-level of distaste that Jack Frost was seated in the chair directly across from hers, but did nothing outwardly to express her malcontent since Frost wouldn't have noticed otherwise; he was too busy playing with his fork.

"Alice, this is the Sandman," North introduced. "But he likes to be called Sandy."

"Hello," Alice greeted the Sandman with slight uncertainty. Figures of sand danced above his head but Alice was unable to decipher their meaning. He didn't seem to mind though; judging by the way his hands lightly clapped with silent joy, he was just happy to see her, which brought a small smile to Alice's face.

Once seated, Alice smoothed out her apron and dress while Bunny took the chair next to hers. Tooth sat patiently next to Jack, waiting for North to start.

North clapped his large hands together and rubbed them in anticipation. A smile graced his jolly face as he looked around the table at his friends. His family.

"Ah! I love it when we can all come together like this," He said, gaining everyone's attention. "It warms up this old man's heart faster than any fireplace could. Now, before we eat, I would like to say few things."

North turned to face Alice; his hands folding into a business like gesture. His expression was serious but anyone could still plainly see the lightness in his eyes if they wanted to look for it.

"Alice, I'm certain that Bunny has already explained to you why we have asked you here today. I am also certain that you are already aware of who we are and what we represent, but I would like to further explain things in way that, I hope, will help you see why accepting your Guardianship is so important."

Alice inwardly flinched at his last sentence. The possibility that she was going to have to make this life-changing choice within the next hour made Alice immediately on edge. On the outside, she was the ideal picture of a calm composure, she had _many_ years to practice that skill, but on the inside, Alice's mind was falling into turmoil. The tight coiling of panic started to build up in the pit of her stomach as she fought to avoid making eye contact with anyone except North.

She felt the other Guardians' eyes on her and she most certainly didn't like it, but Alice tried to calm herself down before she either; a) ran out of the room, b) became hysterical, c) vomited, or d) all the above, and they probably wouldn't happen in that ideal order either.

Before Alice could voice any type of protest (whether it would come out rude or not, Alice wasn't sure), she felt a familiar furry paw squeeze reassuringly on the crook of her elbow.

Despite the red flags going off in her head, Alice nodded for North to continue.

"As Guardians, it is our job to protect the children of the world. Their faith is what keeps us anchored to this world and we must do everything we can to keep that faith alive. As long as they believe in us, we will guard them with our _lives_." (1)

"Each of us; Bunny, Sandy, Tooth, Jack, and I were chosen by Man in Moon. He is _our_ Guardian and he is responsible for our creation... well, our spiritual creation. And now, he has chosen you, Alice Liddell, to join our ranks and become a Guardian. We are not expecting answer now, but we do ask that you think deeply about this decision."

"I...I'll try," Alice sighed with defeat. How could someone possibly argue with that?

She wanted to tell him no. She wanted leave and forget about this whole day. She wanted to be back in her beautiful Wonderland where her safety was guaranteed and she had control.

But the thing that Alice _didn't_ want was ringing painfully clear in her head, over and over again. She didn't want those carefully constructed walls around her head and heart to be penetrated.

Yes, at the Dollmaker's demise, Alice had more or less conquered her own personal demons. And Alice's one hundred and thirty-seven year-long reprieve from the cruel world also helped her build up her self-confidence, but Alice still didn't think she was strong enough to handle any new pain; at the moment, it seemed like she had only just gotten over her _old_ pain.

So the prospect of being hurt again was something Alice definitely wanted to avoid, especially if it meant feeling those horrible emotions of loss. If Alice allowed herself to gain a sense of friendship, or god forbid a sense of family, with these people, than Alice would once again become an open target for pain and misfortune.

_'Because everyone you love is doomed to die violently. Remember?'_ Alice thought bitterly to herself.

And if Alice were to have another family ripped so harshly from her hands again, she knew that she wouldn't be able to recover from something like that a second time. Recovering enough to leave Rutledge Asylum the first time had been nothing short of a miracle.

"Excellent!" North laughed before he picked up a crystal glass of wine that was placed next to his plate. "A toast then!"

Everyone followed North's example and grabbed their wine glasses. Alice noticed that her wine glass was only filled less than halfway, but she didn't mind. Alice had tasted wine before, and even a bit of whiskey back when she was a human helping her old nanny run the bar at the Mangled Mermaid, but she never really had a liking for it. That small curious taste of the burning liquid had been more than enough for her.

The crystal glass felt delicate and fragile in Alice's small hand and she worried that if her grip became too tight, the stem of the glass would break in half. The fine red liquid swished slightly in the glass as Alice slowly lifted it to join the other ones.

North looked up towards a large oval window that expanded over the entire ceiling. It displayed the stars and moon beautifully.

"Here's to you, old friend!" North boasted happily while raising his glass to the Moon. "To the Man in the Moon!"

"To the Man in the Moon," Everyone except Alice repeated.

They didn't say it with as much enthusiasm as North, but they all raised their glasses in obvious respect and fondness. Alice barely moved her arm an inch before she took a small sip of red wine. Once the others took their drink, they started to reach for the different foods on the table and eat. Alice didn't follow right away; she was still gazing up at the Moon.

She tried to understand how they could be so loyal to a spirit that they've never even seen in person before. How did they even know that a spirit lived on the Moon? And if this 'Man in the Moon' really did exist, who made him the apparent leader of all spirits? Who made him _her_ leader?

_'Absolutely no one,'_ Alice thought bitterly. _'They can put as much faith as they want into him, but they can't expect me to. If they do... then they will be sorely disappointed. Man in the Moon...nonsense.' _

Alice turned her gaze completely away from the Moon and on to the dinner table. She placed her glass back on the dark oak table and reached for a nearby bowl of mashed potatoes. Taking barely a spoonful of the fluffy potatoes, Alice seriously doubted that she would eat much tonight.

As spirits, none of them really needed to eat, but they still did anyways; mainly for the taste of certain favored foods. Having grand dinners like these were always a good excuse to come together as a group and just enjoy each others company. Plus, on occasion, eating could be an adequate way to relieve boredom.

When Alice reached over to grab the salt shaker, she felt a pair of eyes on her. She looked up and caught the Winter Spirit staring at her. He quickly looked away when she noticed him but Alice didn't completely miss the curiosity that showed in his ice blue eyes.

Ugh, Alice hated being the source of someone's speculations. After the rude treatment she had received from Frost earlier, he had no business looking her way.

The rest of dinner hadn't been as awkward as Alice had expected. It was probably quieter than usual due to her presence but it wasn't completely silent. North spent most of the time asking each Guardian what they've been up to since their last gathering. Alice would nod every now and again to show that she was paying attention to the small conversations but for the most part, she didn't move much. Throughout dinner, Alice tried to keep back the nostalgic family memories that threatened to surface and ignore the occasional glances that Jack threw in her direction.

The dinner did allow Alice the chance to examine the appearances of each Guardian a little closer. She was able to take in all the colors of Tooth's feathers, the golden swirls and folds of Sandy's tunic, North's Naughty and Nice tattoos, and even the intricate frost patterns on Jack's blue hood.

Alice wondered briefly how there could still be frost on his clothing. It probably had something to do with his powers, but still, every room in North's Workshop had to be just as comfortably warm as this one. Perhaps his skin was cold. It wouldn't be such an outrageous thing to assume since his skin was almost as pale as snow. Plus, he was a _Winter_ spirit.

Gradually, the sound of North's heavily accented voice faded off into the background as Alice's eyes started to roam over Jack's features more closely. It had just hit Alice then that she hadn't seen someone her own physical age in over a hundred years. Well technically, until today Alice hadn't seen anyone of any age (except for Bunnymund or one of her creations), but it just felt so much more relatable when you were looking at someone your own age.

Alice did think that Jack Frost was handsome; what with his crystal blue eyes, white shaggy hair, slim build, and his devil-may-care smiles. It was an opinion that she would obviously keep private, but she wasn't about to lie to herself over something so trivial. It was a fleeting thought that popped briefly into the front of her mind every time she looked at him, but just because someone was easy on the eyes doesn't automatically mean they were a likable person inside.

Granted, she could see how his carefree personality could be endearing and attractive on a good day... but Alice wasn't exactly having a good day.

~O~

She spaced out a lot.

That was one of the main things Jack noticed about his new 'teammate.' Dinner had barely started ten minutes ago and already Alice Liddell proved to be an interesting person to watch.

Her eyes would move along the room before they would stop randomly and focus on one object for an exceedingly long period of time.

It had been interesting to watch her facial expressions during North's speech. She barely showed any emotion at all. She had kept her back straight, shoulders back, and her face blank as they all listened to North. In regards to her body language, Alice seemed perfectly calm with the strange situation she was in, but Jack could almost sense the panic and confusion bubbling underneath the surface.

Jack figured that he could see it easier than the others could (probably even more than Bunny) mainly because Jack had been in her shoes only two years before. The circumstances and stakes of their similar situations had been very different, but ultimately, they had the same problem.

They were both young spirits who were content (but perhaps not _completely_ happy) with their chosen life styles and routines. Although Jack would have the occasional bouts of loneliness and a heart-wrenching longing for answers and acceptance. Despite that, if he hadn't been chosen to become a Guardian, then Jack probably would've spent the next three hundreds years doing the same thing he's always done, making snow days and causing mischief.

Now, he couldn't speak much for Alice since he had only just found out she existed less than twenty-four hours ago, but Jack figured that if the girl could spend over a hundred years, _alone_, inside a world of her own creation, surrounded by weird creatures (also of her own creation), with the occasional visit from the cranky Easter Kangaroo as her only link to the real world, and not die of complete boredom... then she could probably continue doing that for another few centuries.

Jack knew he couldn't pull something like that off. He was a people person...even though he could count the number of people who could actually see him on both hands.

The point was, they were content and comfortable with their current lives.

Then, out of nowhere, the giant gray rabbit shows up unexpected and takes them (well, in Jack's case, has a group of yetis throw him into a sack and _tossed_) to the famous Santa's Workshop where a group of children-bribing stiffs tell them that they have to become these almighty protectors of every child on the planet Earth.

A situation like that can totally ruin a person's day.

It certainly ruined his.

Jack waited for a break in North's conversation with Tooth before he decided to try and initiate small talk with the girl across from him. The calm and quiet dinner was starting to bore Jack and he felt that he had been silent for too long. Jack liked to talk and he always jumped at the chance to strike up a conversation with anybody who could hear him, which unfortunately again, wasn't a lot of people.

And not to mention, it wasn't everyday Jack got to talk to a pretty girl who could actually talk back.

Although, Alice looked like the spiteful type so saying that she _could_ talk back didn't automatically insure that she _would_ talk back.

"So..." Jack idly started. "What does your pendant mean?"

Jack almost flinched when Alice's acidic green eyes snapped up to meet his. She didn't answer right away and it took Jack a few moments to realize that Alice either; hadn't heard his question, or wasn't sure if he was speaking to her.

"Your pendant," Jack repeated while pointing to his own neck to show what he was referring to. "What does it mean?"

Alice's hand flew up to mimic Jack's as she briefly looked down at her silver pendant.

"It's an Omega symbol... and if I'm not mistaken, it usually means 'the end' of something."

"The end of what?" Jack asked, genuinely curious.

"I...I don't know," Alice answered honestly. She really didn't know what 'End' her pendant was suppose to symbolize. She had never given it much thought before. It seemed strange that the necklace had always been part of her Wonderland wardrobe but she was only just now questioning its presence. The whole idea was starting to make her feel quite silly and oblivious.

"You don't know?" Jack asked skeptically as if he was thinking the same thing she was.

"Yes, I don't know!" Alice snapped.

"Okay! Jeez, sorry," Jack said while holding up a hand in slight surrender. "I was just asking a simple question. Didn't need to get all defensive."

The winter spirit looked back down at his plate and picked half-heartedly at the food with his fork. Alice watched him for a moment before looking back at her own porcelain plate with an odd sense of guilt.

It had been only a simple question and she did get unnecessarily defensive over it. Alice's shoulders slumped a bit when she realized just how much of a hypocrite she was being. Alice had spent most of the evening thinking so little of Frost for the incident back in the Workshop and here she was, failing to answer a simple question without any venom in her tone.

So honestly, Alice was being just as rude as he was, which maybe wasn't very rude at all. Maybe Alice was being too bitter over a situation she couldn't fully control, and perhaps she was projecting her anger on to the first person who crossed her.

Alice raised her head with the intention of redeeming herself for her boorish behavior by starting a more pleasant conversation with Frost, but he already seemed to be over the spat because he cut her off with another question.

"What's Wonderland like?"

"What?" The question had definitely threw her off.

"I've read the books and seen the movies, but they make it seem like Wonderland is just this big enchanted forest. So, I was just wondering if that's what Wonderland is really like."

"...You've read my books?" Alice replied after a long pause.

Alice rarely considered the 'Alice in Wonderland' books as hers. She didn't write them and the 'Little Alice' in the stories didn't resemble Alice's real childhood appearance. Yes, the books were based off her creations and her Wonderland, but they never truly felt like her books.

During the beginning of Alice's new life as a spirit, Bunnymund tried to convince Alice otherwise by bringing copies to Wonderland and urging her to read them, hoping that they would somehow inspire Alice to reconnect with the Outside World, but after about thirty years, he stopped trying.

"Well yeah, these days, it would be pretty hard to find someone who hasn't," Jack smiled while tapping his glass absent-mindedly with his fork. "They're classic books, and the movies helped too."

"Oh, I see," Alice said while briefly wondering what a 'movie' was. "And to answer your question, no, Wonderland is not only made up of forest. It's broken up into different sections and each section has its own unique and distinguishing theme to it."

"What kind of sections?" He immediately asked afterwards.

Alice opened her mouth to say something but nothing came out. The Winter Spirit's continued curiosity puzzled Alice greatly. To her, Frost looked like the kind of person that lost interest in things quite quickly, unable to concentrate on one single object or idea for very long.

_'I suppose appearances can be deceiving,'_ Alice thought wistfully. _'And according to Cheshire, I'm the perfect example of that. Though I hardly see why he would think such a thing.'_

"Well, there's the Hatter's Domain, the Red Kingdom, Vale of Tears, and others sections I'm sure aren't included in Carroll's books."

"The Red Kingdom is but not any of the others, which I figured would be the case," Jack said. "Most myths and legends about Tooth, Sandy, North, and Bunny don't portray them or their domains completely either."

"No, I suppose they don't, do they?" Alice said with a fond smile as she recalled all the times Bunny complained about how his main 'image' in the real world was a cute and fluffy bunny rabbit. "And what about you, Mr. Frost? What do your stories say about you?" (2)

Immediately, Alice knew she had said something wrong when Jack's smile vanished and his eyes went to his plate. Jack stumbled over his next few words and tried to cover it up by clearing his throat.

"I uh...I actually don't have any stories," Jack shrugged. "The children don't exactly...believe in me."

Alice muttered a quiet apology before looking back down at her own plate. She mentally chastised herself for making the conversation awkward. Way to go, Alice.

It must be hard for a spirit, who was so obviously an extrovert, to not be believed in. If Alice remembered correctly, spirits like them were invisible to people who didn't believe in their existence.

Perhaps her and Frost could be considered similar in some way. No one believed in the real Alice. The Alice people associate Wonderland with is the small blonde Alice, not dark-haired Alice Liddell. Although it was true that, technically, Alice was believed in; little Blonde Alice was her, in theory at least.

But which was worse? Having children believe in a more ideal, a more _perfect_, version of yourself while your true self is completely forgotten by time? ...Or not being believed in at all?

In Alice's opinion, Frost probably had it harder when it came to the 'Believers' department because of obvious reasons. Alice _didn't care_ whether people could see her or not. It has always been that way for Alice in some form or another. When Alice was human, the seemingly good patrons of the rotten side of London would go immensely out of their way just to avoid Alice and her 'stone of madness.'

And why wouldn't they? Reputation was everything back then, even for the less than saintly characters. Alice had been a sickly looking ex-mental patient. She was also an orphan who would probably never wed and become a productive member of society.

But despite all those 'personality flaws', Alice always liked to believe that the true reason people avoided her was because she wasn't afraid to speak her mind. More specifically, she was a _woman_ who wasn't afraid to speak her mind. Plus, her vocabulary and intellect were, in their opinion, way too advanced for someone who never made it past elementary school.

When you put all those unfavorable qualities together with her inability to 'hold her tongue,' Alice was easily considered no better than the pimps and prostitutes that lurked around the Billingsgate slums. Quite frankly, Alice was avoided like the plague.

So, for Alice, being invisible or ignored was just second nature; she preferred in fact. She has been a borderline recluse ever since she was a child. Although, during that stage in her life it wasn't by choice. The Liddell family home was a little more secluded than other homes and Alice could never seem to make any friends no matter how hard her mother tried with her habit of scheduling play dates with neighboring children.

Wait...didn't she meet Bunny after a practically bad play date? It had been too long ago to recall completely, but maybe if she-

"You don't have many believers _yet_, Jack," North reminded him with a slight wag of his pointer finger. "But you will, please be trusting me. These things take time."

"I know North, I'm alright with it, really," Jack said with a reassuring smile that almost seemed genuine.

North gave a satisfied nod before sitting back in his chair. He raised his arms above his head in a sketch as he let out a loud yawn.

"Time flies, doesn't it?" He laughed. "I believe it is about time for me to close up shop for the evening. Alice, I would very much like if you would stay and spend the day in the Workshop tomorrow. That way you can watch the yetis make the toys and I'll show you how to care for the reindeer."

"Oh, I don't know if..." Alice trailed off. She wasn't sure if she wanted to stay, but she didn't want to disappoint the Christmas spirit either, not after all his warm hospitality.

"I was goin' to take Alice home in the mornin' and help out with some clean up of the Looking Glass Line," Bunny said, joining the conversation while getting up from his chair.

The gray pooka looked across the table at Tooth with an apologetic smile.

"Mind if I take a rain check on our plans tomorrow, sheila?"

"Oh...yeah, sure Bunny. We can plant fresh flowers around my palace some other time," Tooth said after a few moments.

The oblivious male Easter Bunny may have failed to notice the disappointment in the fairy's pink eyes and the new slump in her posture, but Alice didn't.

"Actually," Alice cut in while turning back towards North. "I would love to stay."

"What? Really?" Bunny asked in slight awe. He wasn't expecting her response considering he could tell that Alice had been uncomfortable all evening long.

"Yes, really Bunny," Alice said. "A day in the Workshop sounds wonderful. Besides, I wouldn't want you to cancel your pre-existing plans with Tooth on my behalf."

"Are you sure? I won't be there right away if somethin' goes wrong."

"I'm sure I'll manage."

"Well...I guess if your okay with it, but just-"

"Stop being such a worrywart Bunny" North laughed while giving Bunny a rough pat on the back, which made Bunny stumble a bit. "She'll be fine!"

"Will you stop that, mate! I swear, I'm goin' to fall flat on my face one of these days!"

"What ever happens Bunny, I'm sure it would be an improvement."

"Why you.." Bunny growled at a laughing North and Sandy.

Tooth smiled at the boys' antics before getting up from her seat and motioning of Alice to follow her. Alice got up and walked around the bickering Guardians.

"Come, they'll be here for a while," Tooth said. "I'll show you to your room."

Before leaving the dining room, Alice glanced back at where Frost was sitting to see if he had decided to join in on their argument, but his seat was empty.

~O~

"Alright, here it is."

Tooth opened a bedroom door at the end of one of the guest room hallways.

The room was surprisingly modest for a room located in North's Workshop. It had a simple four-poster bed with white curtains and a dark red quilted comforter, mahogany wardrobe in one corner, a beautiful vanity in another, a plush floor rug, and elegant French doors leading to a small balcony in the back. There was also another door on the right side wall which Alice assumed was the bathroom.

It was extravagantly decorated but still relatively modest compared to the rest of the Workshop.

"Are all the rooms like this?" Alice asked while running a hand over the pristine white sheets of the bed.

"No, each bedroom is decorated differently," Tooth replied. She was hovering near the doorway with her hands folded in front of her. "I thought you would like this one though. I can take you to a different one if you don't."

"No, I like it. It's beautiful. I was just curious."

"I'm sure you've already noticed North's eye for the extraordinary."

"Yes, his Workshop definitely reflects his personality."

"It really does, doesn't it?" Tooth agreed with a smile. "Well, I guess I'll go now. Goodnight, and don't forget to brush and floss!"

The Tooth Fairy was barely halfway out the door when she heard Alice call her name.

"Tooth?"

"Yes, Alice?" She turned back around to look at the girl.

"I wanted to apologize...for earlier. It was rude of me to snap at you like that."

"That's alright, I shouldn't have mentioned-"

"No," Alice said firmly. "You and other Guardians shouldn't have to walk on eggshells just because I'm too sensitive. I'm the only one who should apologize. I need to stop acting so childish."

Tooth watched Alice scolded herself like a child before taking a seat on the nearby bed. She let out a tired sigh before hovering over to the potential Guardian. She placed her hands softly on Alice's shoulders and waited for the girl to look up at her, but when she didn't, Tooth decided to continue anyways.

"Alice, I know that what happened to you in this world was horrible and that a small part of you is still recovering, but whatever it is that you're still struggling to overcome, I just want you to know that you don't have to go through it alone anymore. Even if you don't take the Guardian Oath anytime soon, we will always be there to help you. Although, I think you will make the right decision in the end. We all do because we believe in you."

And with that, Tooth pulled away from Alice and floated over to the door. The feathered fairy wished Alice a goodnight one last time before she closed the door behind her, but she stopped for a split second when she heard Alice say:

"Make sure Bunny has a good day tomorrow. He deserves it."

Then the door clicked shut.

~O~

Alice continued to sit on her bed long after Tooth left. Her emerald-green eyes were focused intently on the lines in the wooden floor underneath her black boots.

She had been so deep in thought that when a familiar sardonic voice cut through the silence, Alice nearly jumped out of her skin.

"They're quite the bodacious bunch, aren't they, Alice?"

Alice placed a hand against her chest to calm her poor, startled heart before she fixed the sudden intruder with a glare. The offending figure laid casually across the stone railing of the balcony with his gray tail flicking liquidly in the air. Funny, she didn't even hear those doors open.

"Cheshire!"

Alice crossed her arms in a huff and practically stomped out on to the balcony. The infamous Cheshire Cat only watched as she approached with his amused gold eyes, his grin ever-present.

"I thought I left you to watch Wonderland while I was gone."

"You did, but after you didn't return for quite some time, I started to worry that you had gotten yourself lost. That seems to be one of your more persistent bad habits, Alice."

"You, worried?" Alice curtly laughed. "That's certainly a first!"

"At least I didn't come across as a complete shrew to my new _friends_."

"Cheshire, I am really not in the mood to listen to your cynical wisdom, or whatever it is you call your insults," Alice sighed. "I had a long day."

"Ah yes, I caught the little show with the toy airplane. The pale boy is horrible at making good impressions, isn't he? Although, I did enjoy the finale where the overgrown rabbit was hit in the head. I would imagine he'll have quite the bump on the head tomorrow."

"Bunny getting hurt was not funny, Chess," Alice replied sternly with her hands on her hips. "But you were right about Frost."

"Well now, this could be interesting," Cheshire purred mockingly. "The boy is a bumbling idiot and you're a confused mess. That's a match made in heaven if I ever did see one."

"Go back to Wonderland, Cheshire," Alice demanded. "I won't tell you again."

"But don't you want to hear my warning?"

"No."

"It's very unfortunate."

"Knowing you, it probably isn't."

"Humor me then."

Alice sighed in frustration before crossing her arms once again. The Cheshire Cat could be as stubborn as mule sometimes.

"Alright, but make it quick."

"Bossy today, aren't we?" The emaciated gray cat smiled. "Shadows can be simply overlooked when one chooses not to pay attention, but you can't always assume-"

"Cheshire," Alice said with a warning tone while she tapped her foot impatiently. "I said-"

"Something _wicked_ is coming, Alice," Cheshire purred in his rich, deep voice. "See? It's not so fun when you're the one being interrupted, now is it?"

"What do you mean something is coming?"

"I _say_ what I _mean_, you should try it sometime," He narrowed his piercing gold eyes. "History tends to repeat itself in the worse ways and you don't want to be present when it does. I'm sure I don't have to remind _you_ that evil can lurk inside even the lightest of rooms. Be. on. your. guard."

Before Alice could question him further, the Cheshire Cat disappeared from sight.

The dark-haired girl looked at her 'companion's' previously occupied spot for a few more moments before she turned away, brushing off Cheshire warning for now. The balcony doors made a satisfying clicking noise as Alice turned the lock into place. From the top of her peripheral version, she saw the moon hanging majestically in the night-time sky.

Cautiously, Alice slowly lifted her gaze to look at it fully. The large silver sphere hung so innocently, without a care in the world. For a moment, Alice's eyes scanned its surface, searching for any signs of the Man in the Moon's presence.

Then, that moment ended and Alice scowled at herself for thinking so foolishly before she shut the curtains tight.

She really needed to get some sleep.

* * *

**AN: Ugh, is anyone else's allergies killing them? I didn't really like this chapter much. I wanted Alice and Jack's conversation to sound more argumentative. Okay, in regards to Alice not knowing what a movie is, I'm not sure if Alice would know what a movie is but if I'm wrong, let me know and I'll edit it.**

**(1) Okay, I totally ripped off North's lines from the movie trailers, but there really wasn't any other way I could explain the Guardian's purpose. It was already perfectly said!**

**(2) I don't think there are any myths or stories about Jack Frost. I know he has his 'nipping at your nose' expression but I'm pretty sure that's it. If you know otherwise, drop me line.**

**Also, I decided to start ending each chapter with a question just for fun. Please note: I CANNOT reply back to your review if you're not logged in or signed up with an account, the website won't let me! It drives me crazy when anonymous reviewers leave me reviews with questions in them because I can't reply back!**

**On another note, I have a DeviantART account for those who are interested in knowing that. There is absolutely no art posted on it because mainly, I don't know how to. I'm freakin' horrible at computers. My ID name is scorpiofreak13. So if you don't have a Fanfic account but you have a DA account and want to send me a message I can actually respond back to, you should try there. **

**I didn't have much time to edit this one so if you see a mistake or if something sounds funky, let me know and I'll fix it.**

**Q: Let's start with an easy one. Who is your favorite Guardian and why?**

**~Scorpiofreak~**


	7. Chapter 7: Midnight Stroll

**AN: Hey everybody! Sorry for the wait (as usual), I thought I'd have more time for Fanfic since I'm out of school but for some weird reason I've been really busy. Seriously, I have no idea where this social life came from! I swear I didn't have one back in April. But in all honesty, like I said before, I don't update late just to piss you guys off. Seriously, it's not my passion. Also, it's not like I'm being lazy and can create a new chapter in twenty minutes but I just don't want to. I put a lot of effort into each chapter. Not that I'm getting complaints! You guys have been more than awesome and I love you all!**

**I stayed up all night finishing and editing this chapter so don't be surprised if you find a number of mistakes. Sorry, my editing skills aren't too great at three in the morning.**

**And besides, I'm working on a little side story I think you guys will really like.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own A:MR or ROTG. **

* * *

_I'm out on the edge and I'm screaming my name_  
_ Like a fool at the top of my lungs_  
_ Sometimes when I close my eyes I pretend I'm alright_  
_ But it's never enough_

_Echo ~Jason Walker_

* * *

Alice barely slept two hours.

She woke up to find that her racing mind wouldn't let her fall back asleep. After tossing and turning for about another hour, she finally gave up the fight against her insomnia and decided to find something more productive to do instead.

Alice sat cross-legged on her plush bed in nothing but her blue dress and striped stockings. Her white apron and buckled boots laid uselessly on the floor where she had dropped them hours earlier.

In one hand, Alice held the handle of her prized Vorpal Blade while her other hand polished it with a red handkerchief she found in the bedside drawer. Polishing the intricately designed knife seemed a bit pointless since it was already spotless and nicely sharpened, but it gave Alice's restless hands something to focus on.

Truthfully, Alice hasn't had any real reason to use her Vorpal Blade in a very long time. There was the occasional Insidious Ruin that needed to be dispatched in Wonderland, but nothing beyond that, and Alice was pretty sure that the disappointment she felt for the lack of action wasn't entirely healthy. After all, she should be happy that her Wonderland was no longer being corrupted, right?

Sometimes Alice had to think long and hard about that question for reasons she could never fully comprehend, but in the end, Alice always decided that she liked a non-corrupted Wonderland much, much better. After all, a corrupted Wonderland usually meant that Alice lost her mind again and she definitely didn't want that.

Still, Alice couldn't help but think that things had been a lot more interesting in her Wonderland when it was. Yes, the Dollmaker siege had been horrible and soul crushing -even more so than the Red Queen's time of despotic ruling- but at least Alice had something to_ do_, something to _fight_ for.

Perhaps it was partly Alice's fault that her routine had become slightly tiresome. During her long reprieve from the Outside World, Alice had only been focused on cleaning up the parts of Wonderland that already existed. She hadn't created anything new in many, many years, but it made sense that the reconstruction of Wonderland should come first before anything else.

However, she couldn't deny that after one hundred and thirty-seven years of clean-up duty, her daily routine has become a bit tedious.

Alice wanted to create new areas of Wonderland but she wasn't entirely sure how to. Wonderland was no longer inside her head, it was real, and Alice didn't know if new additions had to be manually built, or if they would just build themselves as she imagined them in her head, like when she was a child. Honestly, Alice hasn't even tried yet. Wonderland reconstruction was time-consuming and usually required her full attention. Places like the Dollhouse and the Looking Glass Line still needed to be purged of left-over ooze and repaired. The Vale of Tears alone had taken almost a hundred years to repair. Yes, time seemed to move differently in Wonderland -changing sporadically from slow to fast- but that didn't mean it wasn't any less bloody difficult.

But regardless of how she felt about her lack of entertainment in Wonderland, thinking about that certainly did nothing to help Alice calm the current troubling dilemmas that rattled her brain at that very moment.

Why was she even here?

Alice Liddell was _not_ a Guardian. She knew that the very second Bunny told her the ridiculous news. No doubt the other Guardians had felt the same way when they were first chosen, but Alice just _knew_ that the Man in the Moon had made a mistake by picking her.

Although she wasn't a raving lunatic anymore, Alice still had way too much emotional baggage on her shoulders. Alice still had things she needed to figure out and she was just too broken to be a protector of children. Her childhood had been way beyond dysfunctional and not to mention, her hands weren't exactly clean.

For the love of all things twisted and delightful, Alice had _murdered _a man! She pushed him in front of an oncoming train! And even though the sick bastard completely deserved it, that didn't change the fact that it was wrong. Alice was in no way religious but even she knew that taking someone else's life was considered the ultimate sin. There just wasn't any way to kill someone and then later go back to the way things originally were, even if the killer felt no remorse, which Alice didn't.

Alice do not regret killing Doctor Angus Bumby. Why should she? He had singlehandedly destroyed her life in one night. A malignant spark was all it took and Bumby had been the one to light it.

He robbed her sister of her innocence, then strangled the beautiful life out of her, set Alice's childhood home ablaze, and watched from the shadows as her family burned. And if that wasn't sick enough, he chose to drive the knife even deeper by taking Alice on as one of his patients. The Doctor sat across from her everyday, listening as she spoke of her precious Wonderland and her real world problems -problems that _he_ caused. She remembers him sitting in his plush office chair, writing down notes on his notepad and nodding as if he understood, acting like he was a person she could trust.

And she did.

All the children in the orphanage did, and that only made him even more despicable. The man had been a soulless monster and he needed to be stop. He had ruined so many children's lives, including hers.

_'Now leave! I'm expecting your replacement...'_

And he was just going to do it again, and again, and_ again. _Men like Bumby never stop on their own.

Alice couldn't just let him continue to walk away a free man. She had been so blind to the suffering around her, so wrapped up in her own selfish cloak of self-pity and pain, that it had kept her from seeing the current horrors the other children were going through. Alice had her own equal slice of blame in their demise because Caterpillar had been right, she had witnessed the pain of others and for years, did nothing to stop it. She was just as horrible as Dr. Bumby.

Bumby may have been a malicious murderer and borderline child pimp, but he had been right about one thing. Who was going to believe insane Alice Liddell over a seemingly respectable man of society? Absolutely no one.

Surprisingly enough, when Alice discovered the truth about everything, she hadn't sought him out at the train station that day with the intentions of killing him. No, she wasn't stupid -despite what that blasted cat might think- Alice wasn't about to waste her newfound freedom on scum like Bumby.

She wanted to confront him, hear him admit to his crime. Alice needed to hear, more than anything in the world, that it was Bumby's fault that her family was dead, not hers. Afterwards, she fully intended on going to the authorities. Alice wanted everyone to know the cause of her madness and have the 'good doctor' be locked away with his reputation in ruins, just like her Wonderland. Sweet poetic justice.

Alice knew that Bumby had a point about no one believing her, but she also knew that she had to try to seek justice for all those poor little souls. She at least owed them that much.

It hadn't been until Alice turned away from the monstrous man -having just snatched her sister's bedroom key from his watch- that Alice had felt it. That familiar surge of strength and power that Alice only ever felt when entering her Wonderland.

It ignited in her chest and spread through her veins like wildfire, but only this time, it felt ten times stronger. It felt like her whole body was suddenly lifted from a cold, dark place and into a world of brightness. Invisible chains unlatched from her limbs and she felt light as a feather. _Something_ about her had changed in that brief moment, something so marvelous and terrifying that it almost paralyzed her.

_Almost _but not quite.

Alice still remembers the look on Bumby's face when she turned back around with the approaching train's whistle ringing loudly in the distance. He looked amazed, confused, and horrified all at once, and that expression had been all Alice could focus on. She hadn't even realized yet that she was in her blue Wonderland dress, nor that Bumby would be the last person to ever see her. The power and euphoric aura surrounding her was otherworldly, _she_ was otherworldly.

If you were to ask Alice how it was that Dr. Bumby could see her after she became a spirit, she wouldn't be able to answer that, she didn't know. There were many aspects to her spirit life that Alice still didn't understand but was always too afraid to ask her other spiritual companion. Alice was afraid that the answers she would receive might reveal that she wasn't a normal spirit, or perhaps something worse -a sign that she was falling into madness again.

So even now, after all the time Alice had to think about her past decisions, she still didn't feel any remorse for pushing Bumby. But if she didn't feel any type of guilt over killing someone, then how come she lied to Bunny when he asked about what had become of her family's killer?

That was another question Alice couldn't answer completely and honestly. She always figured though, that it had something to do with the possibility of getting shunned by her oldest friend. The dark-haired girl knew next to nothing about Bunny's life before becoming the Easter Bunny, but she did know that in his current life, killing someone was wrong and it was never justifiable.

But perhaps she wasn't giving Bunny enough credit, the pooka always seemed to understand and forgive Alice's past mistakes before; including the long period of time when Alice had completely forgotten about him. She didn't mean to forget, she didn't choose to stop believing. Her mind wasn't exactly her own after the fire. Even after killing Bumby, Alice didn't start remembering Bunny until about five years later.

Her mind had been so focused on trying to remember the night of the fire, but when the truth finally came out, Alice was lost again. Mainly because no one could see her anymore but also because her revenge was complete. Revenge focuses the mind, but what happens afterwards? She obviously couldn't continue living her life like before. Eventually, after wandering London in a confused trance for a couple of years, the rest of Alice's memories gradually started to resurface. It was only a matter of time before she remembered Bunny, and when she did, she made her way back to Oxford just in time for Easter that year. She was forgiven instantly.

So at the very least, if Bunny knew what she had done, he would be immensely disappointed -that she knew for sure-and disappointment was another thing that Alice couldn't bare to see directed at her by him. Whether it was disappointment caused by her ultimate act of violence, or the fact that she had lied to him about it. As far as Bunny knew, the killer of her family was arrested and locked away for the rest of his miserable life. Alice didn't go into detail about that day, she claimed that she couldn't really remember it -which was another lie because Alice remembered _everything_ about that day.

But now, after everything that has happened today, Bunny's horrified expression wasn't the only one that entered Alice's mind when she thought about her big secret. It completely bewildered Alice that she barely knew the other Guardians more than a single day and already she was starting to actually care about what they thought of her. Curse those amicable spirits and their welcoming ways. New emotional attachments was definitely not something Alice needed right now.

So, here was the underline question that Alice couldn't make any sense of, not that she had much sense to begin with.

Why?

Why on Earth would the Man in the Moon choose her, of all the spirits in the world, why did it have to be her? There had to be plenty of other perfectly qualified spirits. Who in their right mind would choose broken little Alice to be a protector of the faith of every child on the planet?

If this Man in the Moon truly existed and truly believed that Alice Liddell was a guardian, then perhaps Alice finally found someone who's more insane than her.

Alice raised her newly shined Vorpal Blade into the air, watching the light from a nearby candle reflect off its glossy surface. She gave a quick, fleeting glare at the old fashion night-light and nearly scoffed at herself. Almost a hundred and sixty years old and Alice still couldn't sleep comfortably in the dark, ridiculous.

After looking again at her slightly distorted reflection in the blade, Alice let out an exasperated sigh while placing her favored weapon on the bedside table.

Deciding that she had sat still long enough, the young spirit stood from the bed with the intention of going for a short walk to clear her head. She reached down to the floor to retrieve her white apron. Once the cloth was securely tied around her narrow waist, Alice spared a quick glance at her boots before deciding to just go in her stripped stockings. The workshop would be empty by now so Alice didn't have to worry about any yetis stepping on her poor toes.

~O~

Although the workshop was much more peaceful after hours, the atmosphere of the now empty work area seemed almost unnatural. Though it was utterly chaotic, Alice preferred the more lively version of the workshop.

The main lights were off but smaller lights and candles lined the railings and ceiling beams, bathing the workshop in a dim glow. It was dead silent and all the workshop tables had clusters of temporary abandoned toy projects that would be started up again once the yetis returned. The giant world globe slowly rotated on its pillar, all the little lights shined brightly despite their size.

Alice leaned over the wooden railing with her arms crossed. Her eyes roamed over the globe, taking in the carvings and symbols that were etched into its surface. The girl sighed wistfully as she remembered that her own belief had once been represented by one of those tiny lights.

Closing her eyes, Alice took in a deep breath of peppermint and cinnamon scented air before slowly exhaling. Opening her eyes again, Alice laid her head down on her folded arms and continued to watch the rhythmic rotation of the Globe of Belief. It became slightly hypnotic and Alice found herself standing there for almost an hour, lost deep in thought like always.

Just when she finally decided to return to her room and continue to stare at the ceiling in a vain attempt to fall asleep, Alice heard something in the distance. Focusing her full attention on her surroundings, Alice was able to distinguish the sound of someone talking. The voice was faint but it sounded like it was coming from the floor above her. Despite her better judgment, Alice took a nearby staircase upwards and followed the voice.

The closer she got, the clearer the voice was.

It was Frost.

It couldn't have been anyone else, it was unmistakably male and it lacked both a deep Russian and familiar Australian accent. Alice's exploration eventually brought her to the top floor of the workshop.

"I know it must seem like I'm asking a lot, but you haven't exactly made it easy for me."

Alice stuck close to the shadows of the workshop and slowly looked around the corner to see the main fireplace and control system for the globe. She let go of the wall and walked out into the open area in front of the fireplace, taking care not to make her footsteps heard, which happened to be extremely easy because of her bootless feet. Alice wasn't entirely sure why she hadn't blatantly made her presence known like she usually would -instead of doing all this sneaking around- but perhaps it was because her curious nature was piqued.

Frost was sitting with his legs crossed on one of the window seats located past the main fireplace. The boy sat with his back facing Alice and he had failed to notice her. The odd crooked staff that he always seemed to have in his possession rested across his lap.

From the window, they had a perfect view of the moon. It bathed Frost in its beautiful glow, making his white hair shine silver. An unnatural but beautiful color for someone's hair to be.

"I mean, before the battle with Pitch, I was constantly asking you about my past and my purpose for the past three hundred years... and now that I know, I'm _still_ asking questions."

Who was he speaking to?

"I've come to accept my role as a guardian, and finally being believed in feels more amazing than anything I could ever imagine but...but somehow, it just isn't enough."

Alice barely held back a scoff when she realized that he was speaking to the Man in the Moon. The skeptic girl shifted her weight to one foot and crossed her arms, waiting for Frost to finish his little chat with the moon.

"I need to know...what happened after I fell through the ice? Did she blame herself for what happened, or did she just forget? I wouldn't be mad if she did...it was an accident and I wouldn't have wanted her to go through the rest of her life feeling guilty about something that wasn't her fault. If anything, it was my fault. I should have checked the ice better. It was still winter and I didn't think that..."

Dammit, his death was the last thing Jack wanted to think about right now. He let out a heavy sigh and his grip on his knees tightened as the memory of freezing cold water and collapsing lungs filled his head.

Slowly, he lifted his gaze back up at the moon, watching for any signs that the mysterious spirit was listening, but like always, Jack received nothing but silence in return. He let out another sigh while running a hand through his white hair. In all honesty, Jack wasn't expecting the moon to respond. In fact, if it _had_ said something back, Jack probably would have died again from sheer surprise. After a couple more minutes of unresponsive silence, Jack decided to call it a day with the soul-searching and go back to his guest room.

The Winter Spirit nearly jumped out of his pale skin when he stood up and turned around to find Alice standing across the room.

"Holy snowballs!" He exclaimed while holding a hand over his pounding heart. "When the heck did you get here?"

"Just now," She lied smoothly, trying to hold back a smirk that was caused by his reaction. According to Cheshire, she already came across as a temperamental shrew. There was no need to add snoop to the list.

"You scared the crap out of me."

Alice's face clinched up slightly at the concept. "Charming."

"I didn't mean that literally," Jack grumbled while he tried to fight back a blush. He somehow felt silly for being caught talking to something that would never answer back. "You didn't...hear anything I just said, did you?"

"Not particularly, I heard you speaking but I wasn't paying attention to what you were saying," Alice lied again.

Oh wow, she had almost forgotten what it felt like to lie. That was another thing Alice hasn't done in a while. In her experience, when it came to dealing with her Wonderland creations, Alice has come to realize that being blatantly -and sometimes brutally- honest was always the best method, and trying to sell false rubbish to Bunny always proved to be pointless. Bunny was a fluffy lie detector when it came to the art of lying. Even with the giant lies Alice told him about Bumby's demise, sometimes she wasn't entirely sure if Bunny believed her. If he didn't, he never said anything about it.

"Wow, now I feel so much better. You really have a way with words."

"You asked. It's not my fault if you didn't like the answer," Alice crossed her arms, pretending that she didn't just say something worthy of coming out of Cheshire's condescending mouth.

"Yeah, I'll make sure to avoiding doing that again in the future," Jack said while rubbing the back of his neck. _'Jeez, this chick is mean.'_

"Who were you speaking to?"

Jack looked back over at the moon before shrugging his shoulders. "Just Manny."

"Manny?"

"The Man in the Moon. Manny is what North calls him."

This time Alice didn't even try to hold back a short, jeering laugh. "It even has a nickname. That's just bloody great."

Jack didn't really appreciate how callously the girl acted in regards to the Moon, but he decided not to walk into another argument. Alice looked like a vindictive type of person and Jack wasn't really in the mood to get his head bit off. From what Jack gathered from earlier, Alice's bite was probably way worse than her bark and Jack wasn't anything if he wasn't a fast learner.

"I take it you don't believe in the Man in the Moon?" Jack asked, hoping he wasn't asking a loaded question.

"Not really."

"So, I guess you're not going to become a guardian," Jack assumed while he sat back down on the window seat with his staff still in his hands.

"I suppose I can't technically say 'No', but I'm not saying 'Yes' either," Alice said, crossing her arms. "I honestly mean no disrespect towards you, the other guardians, nor your way of life, but I'm afraid there has been a mistake."

_'Been there, done that,_' Jack mused nostalgically to himself, remembering how he had once been standing where she was just two short years ago, insisting that MIM made a giant mistake. Jack found it funny though. He's only been a guardian for a short period of time and already he finds himself almost completely immersed in his new role.

"What makes you think he's made a mistake?" Jack has always known his reasons, but he was interested in hearing Alice's. Although, he doubted she would actually tell him.

"_Trust me_..." Alice urged with her emerald eyes sharp, hardened, and serious. "He's mistaken."

"Okay, whatever you say," Jack shrugged his shoulders and nearly laughed when Alice let out a frustrated huff.

There he went again. Not taking her seriously. She didn't need to stand there and take that from such a self-assured, over-grown child. Without another word, Alice turned sharply on her bootless heels and started to take her leave.

"So, I guess we won't be getting a new teammate then, huh?" The winter spirit called out to her.

"I wouldn't hold my breath," Alice called back as she continued to walk away.

"Well that's too bad. I'd be lying if I said a wasn't a little disappointed, but hey, there's no point in crying over split milk, right?"

Alice stopped walking and stood completely still. She knew Frost was playing a game with her and she wanted to keep walking, but her blasted curiosity prevented her from ignoring him. Knowing that she'll probably regret it, Alice decided to humor the spirit and looked back over her shoulder.

"Is that so?" Alice said while her face twisted back up in a scowl when she saw Frost lounging lazily across the window seat with one arm rested behind his head while he expertly twirled his staff in his other hand. "And why would that be?"

Alice nearly shrieked in frustration when Frost didn't even open his eyes to show that he was listening. He just continued to lay there like she wasn't even in the room. She didn't know what point he was trying to make -if there even was a point- but he was really getting on her last nerve.

Alice was use to dealing with infuriating people, in both the real world and Wonderland, but that annoying gnat was taking it about ten steps farther than what Alice was use to, and between drunken sailors on the docks of Billingsgate and Hatter's constant tea chatter, that was quite the accomplishment.

Practically stomping over to her potential "teammate", Alice crossed her arms and jutted her hip out in the classic stance of discontent and annoyance.

"Why," She repeated, hoping the edge in her voice would cut through Frost's thick skull and make him answer her.

Jack lazily opened one eye to look up at the angry girl standing over him. He pretended to have no real interest in their whole conversation while also hoping that he wouldn't get a black eye for his efforts.

"Because if you become a Guardian, then I won't be the baby of the group anymore," Jack wistfully said while examining his pale knuckles like they were much more interesting than anything she had to say, which couldn't be farther from the truth. He was almost twitching with excitement at Alice's response.

"I am no child, Mr. Frost," Alice almost hissed.

"Compared to them, you are. I'm not exactly ancient myself but even I'm older than you by a couple hundred years. You can't be much older than the 'Alice in Wonderland' books though. You're from the Victorian times, right?"

"I suppose? Forgive me Mr. Frost but I-"

"Oh, no please, call me Jack. Mr. Frost is my pet polar bear back in Antarctica," Jack smirked. Bleh, being called Mr. Frost made him feel old. It was almost as bad as being referred to as Father Frost, which only made him feel like he was leading a cult of demented snowmen. "He enjoys long walks on the beach and disemboweling penguins."

Jack chuckled at his own wit but immediately stopped when he noticed Alice's deadpan expression. She probably wasn't happy about him interrupting her again. This girl seriously needed to relax.

He covered his amusement with a cough. "That was joke. You do know what a joke is, right?"

"Yes, I just don't find you very amusing."

"You wouldn't be the first," He smiled.

Alice crossed her arms again while she looked off to the side at the grand fireplace, wondering why she had to be a magnet for such unfavorable and distasteful characters.

Jack chuckled again. He looked up at her as she started to spacing out again. He could definitely see why Alice was Bunny's favorite. They both had razor-sharp tempers and got upset over the most ridiculous things. Jack could never understand how people could go through life with such bitter attitudes and why they would even want to in the first place. Life should be spent having fun and not worrying about every single, insignificant detail. And they were immortal, they had more than enough time to get the important stuff done without having to sacrifice the good times. He could understand Bunny because he had a holiday but what did Alice have? Well, other than Wonderland.

He watched as Alice fell deeper into thought, the dim lighting from the fireplace almost made her hair look scarlet. Her pink lips were pursed in thought and her green eyes were just as striking as before. They kind of reminded him of Bunny's but more acidic looking. She was beautiful, strikingly so, but Jack couldn't help but sense something almost lethal under it, just by the way she first looked at him back in the workshop. Borderline rage laced those shamrock irises and she seemed to be looking _through_ him, rather than at him. Needless to say, it was extremely unsettling.

Jack was well acquainted with pretty but deadly women, one of his closest friends was the Tooth Fairy after all, but Alice Liddell could probably take it to completely new levels. It made him wonder just how different the real Alice was compared to the storybook one. Hopefully, he wouldn't find out the hard way. So it was probably in his best interest if he started to work on getting off her black list which he was so obviously on.

He let out a sigh before sitting back up and wrapping both of his hands around his staff.

"Look, I'm sorry about earlier," He flinched again when her eyes snapped back at him. "With the toy plane."

She gave him a scrutinizing look before letting her own smirk show, and Jack found it way worse than her scowl.

"Which one of them told you to apologize? I would imagine it was North, but it could have been Tooth."

Jack blushed and rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. "It was Tooth...but that doesn't mean I'm not actually sorry. I hope I didn't hurt you... or Bunny but I'm sure he'll tell me all about it later."

Alice uncrossed her arms and placed them behind her back as her smirk seemed to grow. Definitely way worse than her scowl.

"Your concern is appreciated but extremely misplaced. It takes more than a child's toy and a thin sheet of ice to harm me."

"Uh, I'll take your word for it," Jack replied, feeling the urge to back up but not having anywhere to go.

"Good, now if that is all Mr. Frost, I would like to return to my room."

Not even waiting for a response, Alice turned on her heel again and walked away. Jack flinched again at the 'Mr. Frost' while trying to erase a mental picture of himself wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase before he called out to the retreating girl again.

"So, I guess I'll see you tomorrow then?" It was a rhetorical question, Jack knew he would see Alice tomorrow. She agreed to spend the day with North in the workshop and the jolly spirit was going to make Jack help clean up the mess he had made. They were going to run into each other eventually.

"Hopefully not," Alice mumbled to herself but didn't really care if he had heard her or not.

Once she was gone from his view, Jack let out a relieved sigh and slumped back against the window seat. That. was. brutal.

Jack gave an ambivalent glance up at the moon before he let his head fall back down with a shake, white strands of hair following the movement.

"I _really_ hope you know what you're doing, Manny."

~0~

Every four hundred years, just like clockwork.

Interesting choice though. The Man in the Moon certainly knew how to keep things interesting.

She walked right past him just like he knew she would. Nobody noticed him unless he wanted them to. Darkness was his ally and fear was his profession after all. He still had to be careful though, North wouldn't react too kindly if he were to discover an enemy lurking the halls of his beloved domain.

But Pitch Black just couldn't help himself sometimes.

The Man in the Moon could be so predictable. It was common knowledge among spirits that a new guardian was always chosen exactly four hundred years after the previous one. It's been the same for centuries, only deviating from that pattern once when Frost was chosen earlier than expected. A new guardian was always exciting and interesting news, even for someone like Pitch.

Well, maybe not exactly exciting since a new guardian meant a new enemy for him, but interesting nonetheless.

She continues down the long guest room hallway, ignoring the shadows that surrounded her. Even when no one was around, the girl still walked with great poise and confidence as if they were permanently ingrained into her posture.

Oh yes, he remembers her. How could he forget this particular girl? What with her twisted and deliciously wicked imagination? He remembers every single nightmare she ever had before becoming a spirit. Those kind of nightmares were what made Pitch's job worthwhile. True night terrors they were. The way they made her thrash violently in her asylum bed, the restraints only making her nightmares seem all the more claustrophobic.

And the absolute best part of it all was that Pitch never had to lift a finger. The little brat created them all herself, quite impressive for someone so very young at the time. True works of art.

Such potential Alice Liddell held in her hands. Potential that would surely be pacified and eventually wasted if she decided to choose the path of the guardians. There was only so much they could offer a person like Alice before she realizes that it won't be enough and that all their rules and morals would only hold her back.

The girl finally reaches her room, but before she could turn the ornamented doorknob, she stops and stands completely still. For a moment nothing happens as Alice raises a pale hand to brush her dark hair behind one ear, as if it would help her better hear whatever it was that grabbed her attention. Then, without warning, her head snaps towards the direction of his hiding place, in the shadows at the other end of the hallway. Her eyes quickly scanned the area but Pitch knew she wouldn't find anything. He was much more careful than that.

Still, she sensed something was there and that piqued his interest. Usually nobody ever noticed his presence in any way shape or form.

She narrows her eyes suspiciously one last time before entering her room and shutting the door firmly behind her. Just like every new spirit he encounters, Pitch planned to do a little research. He needed to know what he might have to deal with in the future. She wasn't planning on going back to sleep -that much he knew- because spirits rarely ever feel tired enough to sleep for more than a couple of hours.

But Alice _had_ to sleep sometime. It was only a matter of waiting for her to finally crash and fall into a deep sleep just like every spirit eventually did.

Pitch let out an eerie chuckle before he placed his hands behind his back and leisurely strolled down the dark hallways of Santa's Workshop, letting the shadows swallow him whole.

Such potential indeed.

* * *

**AN: Oh Pitch, you creeper. I've never tried writing Pitch before but I really wanted to fully introduce him this time. I originally planned on giving him a very cryptic introduction, but decided against it in the end. I already had Cheshire Cat come in and be frustratingly cryptic, I didn't want to do that to you guys again. I hope I did well!**

**1) I think Alice is very, very pretty. One of the many reasons why I like AMR so much is because the makers gave Alice a classy wardrobe. They don't have her running around half-naked through the game. In most games these days (not _all_ of them but most), the female characters have such skimpy and provocative costumes. I know that's what helps sells those games, but being a female myself, it gets really annoying very fast. So I really admire McGee for making Alice so beautifully stunning but also still very real and classy.**

**Closing question(s)!**

**ROTG was nominated for best animated film at the Golden Globe Awards, but unfortunately (in my opinion) lost to Pixar's Brave. (It was also up against Wreck It Ralph, Frankenweenie, and Hotel Transylvania.)**

**Now, I'm pretty sure I'm asking a biased question here because we're in the ROTG crossover section, but oh well. Did you think that Guardians should have won? Or did you think that Brave deserved the award? Or perhaps, did you want one of the other movies to win?**

**Also, if you do review to answer my question, PLEASE, leave maybe a sentence or two telling me what you did or did not like about the chapter. I love thinking of new questions for you guys but let's not forget what the review button is really for!**

**~Scorpiofreak~**


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